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Alert

Four journalists threatened, accuse chief of police

(IPYS/IFEX) - Since July 2006, four journalists have been threatened with assault in the city of Casma, in Ancash region of northeastern Peru. They accuse Casma's chief of police, Major Marino Jiménez Carrera, of being responsible for the threats. The journalists are Pablo Carrión Hurtado, Ronald Márquez Rosales, Gustavo Samame León and Aldo Meza Torres. All of them have reported on administrative irregularities in the city's police force.

The threats began on 15 July, when Márquez Rosales, director of the news program "Casma al Día", reported that he had received threats by telephone and that unidentified persons were watching his house. According to Márquez Rosales, the threats stem from comments he made about the way the police spent money that was donated for the purchase of a motorcycle. He does not rule out the possibility that the police might have ordered the harassment.

Samame León, of Radio Estudio 99, asserted that he had been threatened by Jiménez after broadcasting, on 14 August, the complaint of several citizens who claim to have been ill-treated by the chief of police. According to the journalist, Jiménez refused to provide his own version of events and threatened to discredit the journalist in other media outlets.

Towards the end of August, Meza Torres, of Radio Estudio 99, revealed that one of the town's policemen was demanding unlawful payments from citizens. According to Meza, the chief of police threatened him on the premises of the radio station in an attempt to keep him from broadcasting the news.

On 7 September, Carrión Hurtado, a correspondent for Radio Programas del Perú, received two threats by telephone and stated to IPYS that he had recognized Jimenez's voice.

The chief of police rejected the accusations in a local newspaper and challenged the journalists to provide evidence to back them up.

The journalists requested protection from the sub-prefecture.