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Alert

Two journalists assaulted by protesting coca growers displeased with media coverage

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 10 March 2007, journalist Julio Aguirre Domínguez, of Radio Concierto radio station, was assaulted by a group of coca producers protesting against the eradication of their crop. The protest began on 8 March.

One of the stones thrown by the demonstrators hit his video camera, damaging the machine and the tape that contained footage of the protest. The next day, reporter Peter Donato, of Radio Emanuelle, was hit on the face and the legs by the same group. They then seized his handheld video camera and his still camera. These events took place in Tocache, one of the localities with the highest production of coca leaves, in north western Peru.

The reporters who cover the area told IPYS that the coca farmers are preventing them from reporting on road blockades and their confrontations with police. Reporters also reported being treated with hostility by the protestors, after they reported that the strike had little support from the population.

On 12 March, David Bazán, Tocache's mayor, expressed support for the protests and called for a 48-hour strike.

Owing to the social conflicts that started when the government began promoting the eradication of coca plantations, Tocache was declared an emergency zone in mid-2006.