Ronald Arcila, of Canal N, and Luis Mego Díaz, of América TV, were assaulted while they were covering the general strike against the Conga mining project.
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 29 November 2011, journalists Ronald Arcila, of Canal N, and Luis Mego Díaz, of América TV, were attacked while they were covering the sixth day of the general strike against the Conga mining project in the Cajamarca region of northeastern Perú.
Arcila, who was leading a delegation of journalists sent to cover the strike, was interviewing several demonstrators in the city’s main square when another group demanded to be interviewed as well. The reporter explained that the time slot he had was not long enough to include everyone and that he had to end his broadcast. The demonstrators who were surrounding the journalists then accused them being “sell outs” and some of them started throwing objects at the media personnel. In the meantime another individual cut the electrical cable that supplied the journalists’ satellite broadcasting equipment.
Meanwhile, Mego told IPYS that while he was interviewing the regional president in the main square dozens of demonstrators warned him that they would remove him from the square because he had “sold out to the mining company”, and he even heard some of them talking about killing him. Fortunately for Mego, the regional president called for calm and prevented the situation from escalating.
According to information provided to IPYS by protest leaders, there are “infiltrators” among the demonstrators whose aim is to attack journalists in order to compromise the image of the protesters.
