(CERIGUA/IFEX) – On 13 June 2006, Carlos Morales, the camera operator for the news programme “Noti7”, which is broadcast three times a day nationally on television channel Televisiete, was assaulted by private security guards in Tikal 1 neighbourhood, in Area 7 of the capital, Guatemala City. Morales was covering a complaint about the prohibition on […]
(CERIGUA/IFEX) – On 13 June 2006, Carlos Morales, the camera operator for the news programme “Noti7”, which is broadcast three times a day nationally on television channel Televisiete, was assaulted by private security guards in Tikal 1 neighbourhood, in Area 7 of the capital, Guatemala City.
Morales was covering a complaint about the prohibition on the free movement of a cleric defending migrants’ human rights. He was videotaping when the guards took aim at him and loaded their guns. He was insulted and kicked by one of the guards.
Morales told CERIGUA that he and reporter Dunia Rocibel Recinos immediately left the scene, fearing they otherwise would be the victims of a more serious attack.
In a separate development, on 12 June Guatevisión television channel technician César Augusto Mejía Rivera was shot on a city bus by unidentified individuals, and hit four times, while he was on his way to provide technical support for a news item.
The incident occurred at 12:35 p.m (local time), at 12th Avenue and 20th Street in the Paraíso 1 neighbourhood, in Area 18 of the capital, Guatemala City. Mejía received bullet wounds to the back and head. The case is being investigated by the Ministry of the Attorney General (Ministerio Público).
According to Guatevisión station, Mejía was on vacation. However, the station called him on the morning of 12 June, asking him to lend a hand. He was on his way to do so when he was attacked.
In a third development, Javier Estrada Lepe, “El Quetzalteco” regional newspaper’s marketing promoter for the Huehuetenango area, was beaten by several individuals recently released from prison on probation, who also robbed him and destroyed dozens of copies of the newspaper.
The assailants complained to Estrada about an article regarding their capture that had appeared in the newspaper, and warned him that they would hunt for the person who had written the article, to “take revenge on him for it.” Sources in the Ministry of the Attorney General and the National Civilian Police had indicated that those in question were being investigated for transporting drugs and other crimes.
A complaint about the incident was filed with the Ministry of the Attorney General, the National Police and the Human Rights Solicitor General’s Office (Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos, PDH).
Acts of aggression against media workers have intensified in the last two months in Guatemala. CERIGUA has therefore expressed its solidarity with the media workers, and asked that the incidents, which constitute an attack on free expression and a threat to the life of the media workers, be investigated.
