(IPYS/IFEX) – During the week of 16 to 22 May 2004, police once again attacked journalists while they were covering demonstrations. The incidents took place in Barbosa municipality, Antioquía department, northwestern Colombia, after the government decided to install a new toll booth. At around noon (local time) on 20 May, a group of demonstrators erected […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – During the week of 16 to 22 May 2004, police once again attacked journalists while they were covering demonstrations. The incidents took place in Barbosa municipality, Antioquía department, northwestern Colombia, after the government decided to install a new toll booth.
At around noon (local time) on 20 May, a group of demonstrators erected a barrier in part of Barbosa’s main square to prevent the police from passing. When two police officers attempted to remove the barrier, the demonstrators began to attack them. According to Miguel Jaramillo Luján, a journalist for Caracol television station’s news programme, other police, who came from various parts of the square, then began to attack the demonstrators. When Jaramillo Luján and camera operator Óscar Álvarez attempted to film the demonstrators as they tried to help a person covered in blood, anti-riot police (Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios, ESMAD) officers prevented Álvarez from doing his work. Jaramillo Luján then took the camera from Álvarez and attempted to film the incident, but one of the police officers hit him in the legs with his baton, stopping the journalist from filming.
Two other photojournalists, Julio Cesar Herrera of “El Tiempo” newspaper and Freddy Amariles of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, said that the actions against journalists and media workers began on 18 May and occurred in several areas where the demonstrations were taking place. In Copacabana municipality, police officers verbally assaulted journalists and threatened to attack them if they continued to carry out their work. On 19 May, a group of police officers tried to seize the camera from a camera operator who works for a local media outlet. When other journalists tried to take photographs of the incident, the police let the camera operator go and tried to attack the other journalists.
According to Amariles, police officers often say “these dogs don’t let us work”, in reference to journalists. The actions against the journalists have taken place as citizen complaints about police excesses have been increasing.
On 18 May, during demonstrations against the Free Trade Agreement (Tratado de Libre Comercio) in the city of Cartagena, three journalists were assaulted by police. Another four journalists were assaulted by demonstrators (see IFEX alert of 21 May 2004).
