(IPYS/IFEX) – On the afternoon of 8 February 2006, Karina Chávez, a reporter for the TV program “Prensa Libre” (“Free Press”), was attacked by a group of supporters of Ollanta Humala Tasso, presidential candidate for Union for Peru (Unión por el Perú, UPP), as she covered a meeting in the district of Comas, northern Lima. […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On the afternoon of 8 February 2006, Karina Chávez, a reporter for the TV program “Prensa Libre” (“Free Press”), was attacked by a group of supporters of Ollanta Humala Tasso, presidential candidate for Union for Peru (Unión por el Perú, UPP), as she covered a meeting in the district of Comas, northern Lima.
The reporter was on the main platform when the candidate claimed that a certain sector of the press was carrying out a campaign against him. A few moments later, Chávez descended from the platform and encountered a group of Humala’s followers, who asked her for whom she worked. When she replied that she worked for América Televisión’s program “Prensa Libre”, she was spat upon and punched in the face. Her assailants then dispersed.
IPYS condemns violent actions by the supporters of any political group, especially actions geared toward interfering with journalists’ work, and requests that presidential candidate Humala and his party’s leaders avoid exacerbating their followers’ aggression towards members of the press.
