Egyptian Military Takes Away CNN Camera During Live Broadcast

July 6th, 2013 10:51 AM

CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman had a rather shocking thing happen to him while logging a live report from near Cairo's Tahrir Square Friday.

Members of the Egyptian military interrupted his report and took away CNN's camera (video follows with commentary):

Wedeman appeared by phone on CNN's The Situation Room later in the day to discuss the event:

JOHN BERMAN, HOST: All right, I have Ben on the phone from Cairo right now. You can see, his camera was temporarily shut down there. Ben, let me just ask you, what happened there? Are you doing OK?

BEN WEDEMAN (via phone): Yes, we're fine. What happened was they clearly didn't want us to be taking any pictures, certainly not any live pictures from very close to four armored personnel carriers that had been brought into on the edge of a bridge leading into the square, where they've broken up these clashes between supporters and opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The officer took away the camera. We had a heated conversation with the Egypt (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And we soon became friends. We stepped away for a cup of tea, and just a few minutes later, the officer returned the camera, and everyone was fine and we're now good friends.

And it was just one of those incidents that one has on days like this.