Media blacks out in Morsi protest

The media protest involved at least eight influential dailies to "stand up to tyranny," independent daily al-Tahrir said on its website.

The Egyptian Independent said it "objects to continued restrictions on media liberties, especially after hundreds of Egyptians gave their lives for freedom."

The country's non-government TV networks are planning to join the protest tomorrow, when they will black out their screens for 24 hours.

Government newspapers, including al-Ahram, went to print as usual.

Meanwhile, thousands of Egyptians massed in Cairo for a march to the presidential palace.

Rising anger over the draft charter and decrees issued by Mohammed Morsi is fuelling an almost non-stop cycle of protests.

Hundreds of riot police deployed around the government's Itihadiya Palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district and barbed wire was strung outside the complex, while roads leading to it were blocked to traffic.

Protesters gathered in their thousands in Tahrir Square and several other assembly points to march to the complex.

"Freedom or we die," chanted a crowd outside a mosque in the Abbasiyah district.

"Mohammed Morsi! Illegitimate! Brotherhood! Illegitimate," they yelled.

The country's judges have already gone on strike over the decrees that placed him above oversight of any court.

Protesters have been camped out in the square for close to two weeks.