The journalists were reporting about electricity shortages when security personnel at the bingo hall tried to prevent them from filming.
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 9 March 2010, reporter Oswaldo Rivero, producer Rocío Pérez and camera operator Humberto Oropeza, members of community-based TV station Ávila TV’s press team, were attacked by the security guards of Las Mercedes Bingo Parlor in Caracas, when they were filming the premises.
One of the guards threw Rocío Pérez to the floor and kicked Oropeza and his camera to stop him from filming the bingo parlour’s façade. The journalists were working on a report about rationing of electricity in the country.
A municipal police patrol witnessed the attack but did nothing until one of their superiors arrived. Not until then did they detain one of the aggressors.
The reporters remained for several hours at the police headquarters where they went to file a formal complaint and complained about the local police’s negative attitude.
The aggressor remained in detention until the next day, when he was ordered to be released by the public prosecutor’s office in charge of investigating the incident.
