but that said, you mentioned the al jazeera there. randi kaye mentioned the al jazeera incident today. it is still something that we take very seriously, whether or not we show the big tv cameras in public, whether or not we go out and identify ourselves as journalists. it s still something we re very careful with. but the situation has improved, suzanne. good news, thank you very much, hala. please be safe. we only want social justice and a change. well, that is it in its simplest terms. there are days of protests, anger, violence, all in the name of freedom. you re going to hear from the people in tahrir square in their own words up next.
nation. my colleague randi kaye looks at the apparent attempt to control the media and its message. reporter: journalists rushed to cover the uprising in egypt and bring the story to people around the world. but they were quickly silenced. leah. reporter: on wednesday cnn s anderson cooper and his team were attacked in tahrir square while covering the protest. been hit now like ten times. reporter: that same day, cnn international correspondent hala gorani was also roughed up covering the story. a stranger escorted her to safety. this is a little chaotic. i have someone helping me out here. reporter: on thursday when anderson cooper ventured out again to capture the protests, his car window was smashed. he tweeted. vi vehicle i was in attacked.
suzanne, stood by while attacks were taking place against journalists and foreigners in general. he told me that it would have been impossible at that time to add more troops in tahrir square. but then over the last 24 hours or so, we saw an increased military presence and a lot more calm in tahrir square and definitely much fewer attacks on journalists, although we have seen some harassment definitely on our colleagues from al jatzeera in the last 24 hours. but the level hats decreased. we certainly hope it remains that way. it was about a month ago that egypt was bringing in the new year much the same as it had the last three decades. same president, same ruling class bolstered by the same western support. it was just 30 days later those pillars of control are crumbling fast under the weight of this popular uprising. our cnn s brooke baldwin takes a look back at these key moments as they unfolded.
to divide the opposition, divide the popular against president mubarak. and the effort here is so that some protesters go ahead. tell us about the military. i understand that the military really has been holding back specifically in alexandria. reporter: you can say that they have. they ve been guarding the government buildings. the protesters haven t been going after those buildings. they ve been guarding one of their large barracks just outside of the center. we ve seen them in the past few days inn crease their presence on the streets and run checkpoints on the streets. we ve seen in the past tanks parked to the side of the road. the army watches local vigilante groups checking traffic. certainly where we ve run into difficulties here, they ve been very kind and helpful to journalists.
our hala gorani is still in egypt. she joins us live from the capital of cairo. hala, obviously you were in the middle of a lot of that mayhem and chaos and even one of the tarlgts there. do you feel safe? do you feel that you are still being targeted? reporter: yes, i feel safe. i felt relatively safe even during those times when we were deliberately attacked. it has gotten a lot better. there is definitely an effort coming from the highest levels not to attack journalists. it really made the government look extremely bad. we re seeing much more of a military presence right now in the streets of cairo. of course, we had some as you can see there from the images instances where it was just a little bit scary. there was a feeling that there was some incitement coming also from higher levels to go after journalists. but right now, the situation is definitely better.