(CERIGUA/IFEX) – On 24 May 2006, Guatevisión news reporter Alberto Cardona was assaulted by seven employees of the private security company Sistemas Integrales de Seguridad, who pushed him forcefully and kicked him, breaking his nose and several of his ribs. They also seized his digital camera and various valuable personal items. The assault took place […]
(CERIGUA/IFEX) – On 24 May 2006, Guatevisión news reporter Alberto Cardona was assaulted by seven employees of the private security company Sistemas Integrales de Seguridad, who pushed him forcefully and kicked him, breaking his nose and several of his ribs. They also seized his digital camera and various valuable personal items.
The assault took place on the night of 24 May in the Army Stadium in zone 5 of the capital city, as Cardona attempted to leave the area reserved for media personnel at a concert by singer Daddy Yankee.
The serious wounds inflicted on Cardona required his hospitalisation and surgery (see IFEX alerts of 7 June and 30 May 2006).
Cardona denounced the aggression to the attorney general’s office (Ministerio Público), the National Police (Policia Nacional Civil, PNC), and the Ombudsperson for Human Rights (Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos, PDH).
In a separate incident, on 18 May Mario René Escobedo, contributor to the column “This is my Huehue” (“Así es Mi Huehue”) in the regional periodical “El Quetzalteco”, was physically and verbally assaulted by an official of the PNC, Alejandro Rivas, in Station 43 of the departmental centre of Huehuetenango.
Rivas insulted and shoved Escobedo as the latter took photographs of a crime scene in downtown Huehuetenango.
According to Escobedo, the police official tried to seize his tape recorder and his camera, and while uttering insults to him, reproached him for having published a news report claiming that in Station 43 there had been a posting advertising the sale of a firearm. Rivas also threatened the reporter, telling him he would have “more problems” if he continued with such reports.
Escobedo reported the incident to the attorney general’s office (Ministerio Público), the PNC, the PDH, as well as to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), of which “El Quetzalteco” is an affiliate.
Acts of aggression against press workers have intensified in recent months in Guatemala, for which reason the Observatory for Journalists of CERIGUA has been in immediate contact with the victims, in order to offer them support and in order to demand a proper investigation into these incidents, each of which represents an attack on freedom of expression as well as on the lives of the effected journalists.
