ABC News’ Christiane Amanpour appears to have secured the first interview with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Amanpour tweeted this a few minutes ago:
“Just spent 20 minutes interviewing President Mubarak at the palace. Details to come.”
Update: ABC broke into its normal afternoon programming with a special report just before 2:25 PM ET. Diane Sawyer anchored, and interviewed Amanpour from Cairo. Amanpour’s first report can be read here.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that it was holding Mubarak responsible for the wave of attacks on foreign journalists over the last few days, almost all from pro-government protesters.
“We hold President Mubarak personally responsible for this unprecedented action,” said CPJ executive director Joel Simon in a statement, “and call on the Egyptian government to reverse course immediately.”
Amanpour was among the American reporters attacked by protesters.
When the interview will air is still unclear, though given the timeliness of it, don’t expect ABC to hold it until Sunday. Most likely it will run on “ABC World News,” where Egypt will likely receive far more treatment than it did on Tuesday.
Update: Amanpour will report on her Mubarak interview for “World News,” with the actual interview airing on a special one-hour edition of “Nightline” this evening at 11:35 PM.