Cairo: Participant shot during unrest

"We are deeply shocked by his death," said DW Akademie director, Gerda Meuer. "Our thoughts are with this young colleague and his family." She noted that last week several journalists were victims of violent attacks.

Al Husseini Abu Dief

The 33 year-old reporter worked for the Al-Fagr daily and was heading to the presidential palace last Wednesday following a DW Akademie workshop. He had his video camera with him in order to report on the violent confrontations between supporters and opponents of President Morsi.

According to an eye-witness, Abu Dief was shot at close range by an unknown attacker. This correlated with a report in the online edition of the Egyptian Independent daily. It said Abu Dief was attacked at close range and that his camera was ripped from him as he filmed Morsi opponents being fired at with pellets.

Abu Dief was taken to hospital in serious condition and lay in coma for several days. He died six days after the attack.

Abu Dief (left), DW Akademie's workshop on video reporting

The DW Akademie workshop is part of the project "Election Reporting and Political Communication" sponsored by Germany's Federal Foreign Office. In April DW Akademie began conducting numerous workshops in Cairo for television, online and print journalists. The project aims to support the development of a democratic media system in Egypt.