(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – On 10 October 2005, journalist Nicolás Sotelo, director of FM San Juan community radio station in the San Juan del Paraná district, was brutally beaten and threatened by town mayor Aldo Lepretti, of the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) political party. According to the journalist, Lepretti, angered by criticisms that had been made […]
(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – On 10 October 2005, journalist Nicolás Sotelo, director of FM San Juan community radio station in the San Juan del Paraná district, was brutally beaten and threatened by town mayor Aldo Lepretti, of the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) political party. According to the journalist, Lepretti, angered by criticisms that had been made on Sotelo’s programme, damaged the studio and without any explanation began punching and kicking the journalist, and threatened him with a revolver.
On the evening of 10 October, two community leaders from the Ita Paso neighbourhood, Inocencia Pineda and Zully Jacquet, came on Sotelo’s programme to sharply criticise the municipality’s administration. Sotelo said that, being familiar with the problem, he had corroborated the complaints made by his guests. He also spoke about the community’s lack of information about a construction project involving the paving of an access road. According to the journalist, “the road is already cracked even though the project hasn’t even been completed yet. Even the town councillors are not aware of what is going on.”
The community leaders left at around 7:30 p.m. (local time) and the journalist remained in the studio alone. Shortly afterwards, Lepretti entered the studio. Sotelo thought the mayor had come to exercise his right to respond to the criticisms, but Lepretti grabbed him by the throat, threw him to the ground, punched him in the face, and kicked him. The mayor then held a gun to Sotelo’s head and threatened to kill him, saying “I’ve already let you get away with a lot.”
Sotelo is planning to file a formal legal complaint for the attack on his home and work place, attempted murder, assault and destruction of the station’s broadcasting equipment and computers.
PROBIDAD condemns the incident and reiterates that the right to freedom of thought and expression includes the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in print, or through any other medium of one’s choice, as stipulated by Articles 5 and 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
The organisation urged the authorities to take legal action against Lepretti and ensure that the assault on Sotelo does not go unpunished.
