The federal government is doing all it can to help an Australian journalist arrested in Egypt, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says.
Australian reporter Peter Greste was one of two Al-Jazeera journalists arrested, along with a producer and a cameraman, amid a widening crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
Ms Bishop said Australian officials in Cairo were providing consular assistance to Mr Greste, adding that "we're certainly doing all we can".
"I don't believe it would assist him if I went into any more details at this stage," Ms Bishop told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
"But we are working directly with him and providing consular support.
"Of course, we're deeply concerned that journalists have some freedom to travel, as we would with any other Australian citizen."
Officers of the National Security service raided the broadcaster's makeshift bureau at a Cairo hotel on Sunday, arresting the two journalists and confiscating their equipment.
The military-installed government did not identify the journalists, only saying one was a "Muslim Brotherhood member" and the other an Australian.
Al-Jazeera English identified them as Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Adel Fahmy, a dual Egyptian-Canadian citizen, and Australian reporter Peter Greste.
It said producer Baher Mohamed and cameraman Mohamed Fawzi were also arrested on Sunday evening.
The raid came after authorities listed the Brotherhood as a terror outfit, making membership in the Islamist group or even possession of its literature a crime.
The journalists "broadcast live news harming domestic security", the Egyptian government said, adding they were also found in possession of Brotherhood "publications".
Greste, a former BBC journalist, won the prestigious Peabody award in 2011 for a documentary on Somalia.
