(FOPEA /IFEX) – The following is a 9 February 2007 FOPEA press release: On 8 February 2007, journalist María Laura Benítez informed FOPEA of her concern about an anonymous death threat she had received on 4 January and the lack of progress in the investigation of the incident. Benítez is a journalist working in the […]
(FOPEA /IFEX) – The following is a 9 February 2007 FOPEA press release:
On 8 February 2007, journalist María Laura Benítez informed FOPEA of her concern about an anonymous death threat she had received on 4 January and the lack of progress in the investigation of the incident. Benítez is a journalist working in the city of Colón in Entre Ríos province, 500 kilometers north of the capital, Buenos Aires.
On 4 January at noon, an unidentified person telephoned Canal 8television station, located in Colón, while Benítez was broadcasting her public affairs commentary programme. The caller told the station’s telephone operator that Benítez had to stop talking about the police or she would be murdered.
The call was made only days after three siblings and another youth had been brutally beaten by police officers at the exit of a local nightclub in Colón. The youths are the journalist’s nephews, and she commented on the incident during her Canal 8 programme several times.
Benítez is also a reporter for radio station LT 26, and a correspondent for the on-line publication Diario Junio.
As soon as she received the threat, the journalist filed a complaint at the local court and requested that the local telephone company be asked to provide a report identifying the source of the call, a measure which has not been taken yet.
Colón Mayor Hugo Marsó contacted the journalist for information on her case, and the local chief of police went to the journalist’s home to offer her personal police protection. Benítez turned down the offer, because at the time she believed that she was not in danger and that the protection was therefore unnecessary.
The relationship between the police and journalists in Entre Ríos has sometimes been tense. In November 2005, the then-commander of police throughout Entre Ríos was transferred from his post for having threatened a journalist in the city of Paraná.
