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Two journalists attacked in Chimbote

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 2 February 2010, a group of supporters of the regional ruling party Cuenta Conmigo assaulted photojournalists Paul Meza Castañeda, of the "Correo" newspaper, and George Vergaray Sánchez, of the "La Industria de Chimbote" newspaper, in Chimbote, a city in the Ancash region of northern Peru.

The journalists were covering the arrival at the Public Prosecutor's Office of Deysi Fiestas Miñano, the Department of Foreign Commerce and Tourism's subregional director. Fiestas Miñano was at the Public Prosecutor's Office to explain the absence of the regional president, César Alvarez, who had been summoned to provide a statement regarding an investigation into the death of a woman at an event in which Christmas cakes were handed out and which was organized by the political movement during Christmas 2009.

The government supporters hindered the journalists' work by kicking and insulting them, as well as threatening to destroy their cameras to prevent them from taking pictures of the official.