A man claiming to be neighbourhood association president William Amayo's lawyer threatened Radio Campesina journalists after the station aired an interview that was unfavourable to Amayo.
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 5 February 2010, Radio Campesina journalists received a death threat from a man who said he was William Amayo’s lawyer. Amayo, who is the president of the Cajamarca Neighbourhoods Association, was accused in a broadcast on the radio station of having failed to pay rent for a house over the past three years. The incident took place in Cajamarca, a region in northeastern Perú.
The man burst into the radio station’s premises and asked for station director Juan Carlos Lobato. When the Radio Campesina journalists told him that Lobato was not in, he began shouting at and insulting them and threatened to kill them.
On 4 February, Lobato interviewed a woman who accused Amayo of failing to pay rent for the house in which he lives and refusing to move out. When the journalists called on Amayo to defend himself, he said it was a minor issue and that he would not answer to the press.
Lobato told IPYS he will request that the government of Cajamarca provide both himself and the radio station’s personnel with protection.
In a separate incident, on 4 February, Karla Gómez Otoya, a journalist for the “Correo” newspaper in Trujillo, said she was slapped by guesthouse owner Richard Ríos Iglesias. Trujillo is located in the La Libertad region of northern Peru.
The journalist had previously published an article in which she said that criminals stay at the guesthouse, among them the members of a gang that robs banks. A vehicle used for one of the robberies was found at the guesthouse.
Ríos Iglesias sought out Gómez Otoya to demand that she reveal the source of her information. When she refused, he slapped her while shouting at and insulting her.
Gómez Otoya filed a formal complaint with the police and requested protection.
