US, Canada and UK express concern about increased threats to journalists in Peru

Embassies USA., Great Britain And Canada in our country today, Thursday, they issued a joint communiqué expressing their “concern” about the “increase in threats” and “situations of violence” against national and international journalists in Peru.

“In times like this, dialogue is vital and the media plays a critical role in reporting responsibly and encouraging constructive and active discussion. To do this, it is necessary to guarantee the rights to freedom of the press, expression and from Access to public information”, the statement says.

In this sense, the three embassies expressed their condemnation of “any attempt to hinder the fulfillment of one of the fundamental pillars of democracy”, which is freedom of information.

“We reiterate the importance of all competent authorities guaranteeing the safety journalists while freely doing their job,” the statement said.

“More than 150 journalists were attacked”

On February 3, the National Association of Journalists (ANP) announced in a statement that a total of 153 journalists were attacked while covering the anti-government protests that began on December 7, most of them in Lima.

Data collected by the Journalist’s Human Rights Office ANPshow that there were 94 attacks on journalists in January and showed that “the largest number were concentrated in Lima and that the most frequent attackers were police officers.”

association emphasized that among the most serious events was the “death threat” by the police to a photojournalist EFE agency, Aldair Mejia, city of Juliaca (Puno), January 7th.

“In this case, a few hours later, the photojournalist was hit by a bullet in his right leg, resulting in a broken bone,” the first medical report says.

He also drew attention to the arrest four regional communicators from the southern region of Puno during a police raid on the National University of the Mayor of San Marcos in Lima, who were released 30 hours lateras well as aggression against the journalistic team of the portal wayka.pewho were “not only beaten by the police, but also deprived of their working equipment.”

Except ANP highlighted the “hostile aggression” that a journalistic group from american televisionwhen some “vandals climbed inside” their car, throwing stones at them, causing one of them to lose two teeth.

He also drew attention to the theft of a microphone and obstruction of coverage of a reporter from the RPP radio station and the case of a newspaper video correspondent. Republicwho was attacked “with sticks, stones and hit on the ground and then demanded that he unlock his cell phone to show what he had recorded.”