(IFJ/IFEX) – Journalist Paul Vanotti, of the news agency “Public Media Center”, was one of the journalists who was seriously hurt during the violent events of Friday 28 July 2000 in Lima. Vanotti asserts that government officials asked him to change his version of how he was injured. His nasal septum was broken and the […]
(IFJ/IFEX) – Journalist Paul Vanotti, of the news agency “Public Media Center”, was one of the journalists who was seriously hurt during the violent events of Friday 28 July 2000 in Lima. Vanotti asserts that government officials asked him to change his version of how he was injured. His nasal septum was broken and the cornea of his right eye was damaged during the incident.
Vanotti, a North American who was in Lima to cover the events, stated that he was injured by a projectile which was thrown from a police vehicle, near the intersection of Lampa street with Emancipacion avenue.
According to the journalist, the director of the National Opthalmology Institute, Luis Zúñiga, and a woman who identified herself over the phone as the institute’s public relations director, asked Vanotti to state that the protesters had been responsible for the attack. The journalist was taken to the institute for surgery, during which small pieces of plastic and glass were taken out of his eye.
The journalist’s version of events is different from that of the director of the National Police, General Fernando Dianderas. In a press conference, the police chief attributed the attack to protesters demonstrating against the Fujimori government who, the chief alleges, threw a rock at the journalist.
Miguel Carrillo Pérez del Solar, design editor for “Etece” magazine, was another of the journalists hurt during the 28 July violence. A number of individuals, who have thus far not been identified, began to beat the journalist while he was photographing persons who were trying to enter the Judiciary building, located near the intersection of Abancay and Nicolás de Piérola avenues. During the incident, Pérez lost his camera and film. The police intervened firing tear gas, which allowed the journalist to escape to safety, but also permitted his assailants to flee.
Photographer Luis González Taipe, of “La República” daily, suffered a similar fate. Individuals whose faces were covered and who were wearing boots similar to those worn by the military, threatened to break his camera, as he was photographing persons who were attacking the National Electoral Council (Jurado Nacional de Elecciones) building, located on Nicolás de Piérola avenue, block 10. González reported that the building was attacked by a group of about twenty persons, including some robbers who had managed to enter the nearby National Bank building and get away with calculators and computer keyboards.
Reporters Erika Fontalvo and Francisco Zacarías Muñoz and cameraman Sergio Cuervo, of the Caracol TV de Colombia television station, were beaten and had their filming equipment taken away from them. The incident occurred near the Judiciary building, by the corner of Abancay and Nicolás de Piérola avenues. Reporter Roberto Silva, of Radio Programas del Perú, was similarly attacked.
The Canal 9 television station’s mobile unit was also targeted. Juan Pillaca, the vehicle’s driver, was beaten by assailants who drove away with the van and transmission equipment.
Furthermore, the Canal 4 television station and Radio Programas studios were subjected to threats, but luckily these did not amount to anything serious.
The 28 July demonstrations were held in protest of President Fujimori’s third term (see IFEX alerts of 28 and 26 July 2000). A significant sector of the population considers Fujimori’s reelection as fraudulent, in part because of the government’s control over television news coverage and the proliferation of a number of tabloids, reportedly subsidized by the government to defame candidates for the opposition. According to Ombudsman Jorge Santistevan de Noriega, certain “elements”, unconnected to the organizers of the political protest known as the March of the Cuatro Suyos, contributed to the violence.
The organizers of the march noted four instances during which infiltrators had provoked the violence. The identity of the individuals in question was reported to the office of the ombudsman.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– asking them to take whatever measures are necessary such that the attacks against the journalists are investigated, concrete proof is obtained and the authors of the events are punished according to the law
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
President of the Republic
Fax: +51 14 266 770 / 266 535
Dra. Blanca Nelida Colan Maguiño
Attorney General
Fax: +51 14 262 474 / 264 620
Dr. Jorge Santistevan de Noriega
Ombudsman
Fax: +51 14 267 800 / 275 847
General EP Walter Chacon
Minister of the Interior
Fax:+ 51 14 224 24 05
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.