(IPYS/IFEX) – On 22 May 2000, while Canal N was broadcasting a live presentation of presidential candidate Alberto Fujimori’s political speech from the Plaza de Armas square in Arequipa, television viewers were subjected to an untimely interruption of the signal. According to “La República” daily, the broadcast was interrupted because certain individuals cut the cable, […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 22 May 2000, while Canal N was broadcasting a live presentation of presidential candidate Alberto Fujimori’s political speech from the Plaza de Armas square in Arequipa, television viewers were subjected to an untimely interruption of the signal.
According to “La República” daily, the broadcast was interrupted because certain individuals cut the cable, that was connected to the satellite and stretched out across the Plaza de Armas, into five pieces.
This attack against freedom of expression occurred one half hour after the Perú 2000 candidate began his speech, amidst heavy tension caused by those who were demonstrating against him, and minutes before a group of locals began to violently express their opposition to Fujimori’s candidacy by throwing objects at the stage set up for the event.
At the end of the political gathering, Canal N correspondent Carlos Torres Salas was surrounded and assaulted by supporters of the Perú 2000 movement who took his portable radio and a microphone. At the time, Salas was dismantling the equipment set up for the broadcast.
