(IPYS/IFEX) – On 20 January 2007, journalists Elizabeth Salinas, host and reporter for the radio programme “Satélite Noticias”, and Cinthia Florez, photographer for the magazine “Cono Este”, were struck, insulted, and issued death threats by José Luis Zafra and Mazzi Soto, officials of the municipality of Chosica, a district to the east of Lima. The […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 20 January 2007, journalists Elizabeth Salinas, host and reporter for the radio programme “Satélite Noticias”, and Cinthia Florez, photographer for the magazine “Cono Este”, were struck, insulted, and issued death threats by José Luis Zafra and Mazzi Soto, officials of the municipality of Chosica, a district to the east of Lima.
The reporters were leaving Salinas’s home when they were approached by the two officials, who threatened to kill them (and demanded that they stop investigating the administration of Luis Bueno Quino, mayor of Chosica. They then kicked them and attempted to seize a tape recorder and camera they were carrying with them.
The officials’ harassment of the journalists started in October 2006, when both journalists covered a series of accusations of corruption against the mayor. Zafra and Soto have not only had the journalists’ homes and offices kept under surveillance, they constantly seek them out to insult them and to urge them to halt their investigations.
The journalists have filed a complaint about the incident with the Chosica police station.
