Pro-govt Egyptian media figures 'attacked' on New York streets

Wherever Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi goes, there is a media circus around him - and the Big Apple is no different.

Several members of Sisi's media delegation in New York City were reportedly assaulted or accosted by anti-government protesters over the weekend.

Videos appeared online on Monday that appeared to show well-known TV talk show hosts Youssef al-Hosiny and Mohammad Sherdy being attacked and verbally abused by a group of around 20 protesters.

Sisi was in New York to address the 70th UN General Assembly debate.

A video shows demonstrators outside Sisi's New York accommodation, some wearing t-shirts bearing the Muslim Brotherhood's Rabaa hand gesture on them, confronting Hosiny and Sherdy in the street with a barrage of insults.

One of the protesters then gives Hosiny a hard smack on the back of his neck, a sign of extreme disrespect in Egyptian culture, to which the TV anchor responded by spitting and insulting the crowd.

The protesters then surround the media personalities shouting "Sisi's dogs", before police are able to separate the talk show hosts from the angry crowd.

"He has footage of them beating us, don't let him go," Sherdy is heard telling the police.

Hosiny then tells the man filming the video: "F*** the Brotherhood, we're giving it to you guys hard," and makes obscene gestures before getting into a police car.

"Twenty sheep with 80 horns [a reference to the four-fingered Rabaa symbol] are standing outside President Sisi's residence in New York, shouting insults as usual. Vast numbers, yeah right," Hosiny tweeted, presumably before the incident occured.

Two hours later, he tweeted: "Me and Mohamad Sherdy are in a New York police car to report a verbal assault and threats to kill and bomb President Sisi's residence.

"Men don't hit from behind, men don't hit and run. Real men get their rights without anyone crying," he later said.

Another video shows a separate incident of talk show host Wael al-Ibrashy being accosted and insulted in the streets of New York, although no physical assault took place in the video.

On Tuesday, The Egyptian Consulate in New York sent a memorandum to the US State Department calling for the arrest of Muslim Brotherhood supporters who attacked the members of the Egyptian media delegation.