ABC News Producer Brian Hartman Threatened With Beheading In Egypt

ABC producer Brian Hartman was threatened with beheading by a group of men, as he reported:

Just escaped after being carjacked at a checkpoint and driven to a compound where men surrounded the car and threatened to behead us.

In a longer report, ABC recounted what happened:

Producer Brian Hartman, cameraman Akram Abi-hanna and two other ABC News employees were surrounded on a crowded road that leads from Cairo's airport to the city's downtown area.

While ABC News and other press agencies had been taking precautions to avoid volatile situations, the road to the airport had been a secure route until today. One of their two vehicles was carrying cameras and transmission equipment strapped to the roof, indicating they were foreign journalists.

Hartman says it was only through the appeal of Abi-hanna, who is Lebanese and a veteran ABC cameraman, that they were saved from being killed or severely beaten.

"We thought we were goners," Hartman said later. "We absolutely thought we were doomed."

Hartman and his team are just some of the many journalists being threatened, detained or beaten by pro-government supporters or security forces.