Perú: Government party councilman attacks video reporter On 28 May 2012, journalist Daniel Vera Vera, video reporter for Expresión TV – Channel 21, was attacked by government party councilman Marco Arrascue Pasapera when he was attempting to interview the provincial mayor of Chiclayo, Alberto Torres, in the midst of a violent council session dealing with […]
Perú: Government party councilman attacks video reporter
On 28 May 2012, journalist Daniel Vera Vera, video reporter for Expresión TV – Channel 21, was attacked by government party councilman Marco Arrascue Pasapera when he was attempting to interview the provincial mayor of Chiclayo, Alberto Torres, in the midst of a violent council session dealing with the mayor’s disqualification as sentenced by a judge the week before. This took place in the Lambayeque region of northern Perú.
The difficult session began with an opposition councilman reporting the sentence for alleged embezzlement issued against Torres on 21 May by the Second Criminal Court of Appeals of Chiclayo, disqualifying him from holding public office for two years. This infuriated the mayor, who decided to end the meeting less than six minutes after it had started. He went back to it, however, in order to approve 4 items of the agenda without any debate, but not to discuss his imminent vacancy, as reported today by the regional edition of the newspaper La República.
Vera Vera told IPYS that he was attempting to question the mayor about his abrupt behavior when councilman Arrascue pushed him against the wall and pulled his camera down, preventing him from recording Torres as he left the hall. The journalist declared that the councilman continued to behave threateningly, without caring about the presence of other council members, whom he also insulted, until he was pulled back by the municipal coordinator.
This is not the first time that councilmen who are close to Torres show their lack of tolerance for the work of communicators. On 21 May 2012, IPYS reported that journalists of different media outlets were prevented from entering the Municipal Palace by a decision made by council members who follow Torres. The journalists had expected to cover a council session in which public interest issues would be debated.
IPYS demands once more that the council members of the Provincial Municipality of Chiclayo should respect the work of the journalists who cover their activities.
