(IPYS/IFEX) – On 21 March 2007, only four days after the murder of journalist Miguel Pérez Julca (see IFEX alert of 20 March 2007), journalists Juan Vásquez, correspondent for América Televisión television station, and Walter Altamirano, from Radio Acajú’s programme “La Voz del Pueblo”, who both live in the city of Jaén, received death threats […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 21 March 2007, only four days after the murder of journalist Miguel Pérez Julca (see IFEX alert of 20 March 2007), journalists Juan Vásquez, correspondent for América Televisión television station, and Walter Altamirano, from Radio Acajú’s programme “La Voz del Pueblo”, who both live in the city of Jaén, received death threats warning them they would be the next to be murdered. The threats were made via text messages to their cell phones. Jaén is located in the Cajamarca region, in northwestern Peru.
Like Pérez Julca, both Vásquez and Altamirano have reported on the lack of public safety in Jaén and corruption in various government bodies.
The journalists filed a complaint about the threats with the local police station. Jaén police chief Alberto Mendoza told IPYS that an investigation into their cases will soon begin. The journalists have also asked the local authorities to protect them.
IPYS has sent a setter to the interior minister alerting him to the risks journalists in Jaén are facing and asking him to take whatever measures are necessary to put a halt to the acts of aggression.
The Jaén Ombudsman’s Office has assured IPYS that it will monitor the investigations into these threats and will also ask the local authorities to protect the two journalists.
On 20 March, a protest march organized by journalists and various civil society groups was held to demand that the authorities resolve the city’s security problems.
