Miami (EFE).- The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) condemned this Friday the “aggressions” and “obstruction” of the work of communicators in Peru and warned about the risks that journalists are exposed to when covering protests public, both in the Andean country and in others in the region.
In a statement, the hemispheric organization called on the media to “urgently activate their security protocols” to protect the work of information.
According to the National Association of Journalists of Peru, quoted by the IAPA, since December 7, following the protests that began as a result of the dismissal of the country’s then president, Pedro Castillo, there have been more than 72 attacks against the press. .
Among the recent events, the statement details, on January 7, EFE Agency photojournalist Aldair Mejía was shot in the leg while covering demonstrations in the city of Juliaca, in the department of Puno.
Likewise, two days before, journalists Luis Angulo and Pablo Torres, from radio station La Ribereña, in the province of Bellavista, were “intentionally run over.”
In most cases, journalists have denounced the security forces as the sources of the greatest violence against them, adds the regional entity, based in Miami (Florida).
The Peruvian Press Council detailed that, among the media affected in recent days in Puno, in the south of the country, are América TV, Canal N, Diario Sin Fronteras, Exitosa Noticias, Nueva TV Nacional, Panamericana TV, PBO, Radio Juliaca La Decana, as well as independent journalists.
In the statement, Carlos Jornet, president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, urged the media to “urgently activate their security and protection protocols to prevent journalists from exposing themselves to risks during their work.”
Jornet, who is also director of the newspaper La Voz del Interior, from Córdoba, Argentina, was “alarmed” at the “serious dangers that Peruvian journalists are facing, as well as their colleagues in Bolivia and Brazil.”
These, he pointed out, “see their work hindered due to attacks, threats and theft of equipment” during the news coverage of social protests.
Between 2021 and 2022, Peru fell from 7th to 11th place in the Chapultepec Index, the table that measures the state of press freedom in the region.
The Chapultepec Index is an annual barometer that evaluates institutional actions that affect freedom of the press and expression in 22 countries of the Americas. EFE
