The National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP) reported last Friday that Peruvian journalists and media outlets suffered 206 attacks, mostly threats and physical and verbal attacks.
The ANP indicated in a release that at the peak of the electoral campaign, journalists suffered 30 attacks in April, 26 in May and 20 in June, while the vote for the presidency and the second round of elections between the former right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori and the current president were taking place , the leftist Pedro Castillo.
The attack once morest journalists with the highest incidence during the year was threats / harassment with 61 cases, followed by physical and verbal aggression with 58 and judicial intimidation with 31 incidents, the ANP indicated.
There were also cyberattacks (15), stigmatizing speeches (15), obstacles to access to information (14), labor disruptions (9), arrests (2) and a robbery. The most frequent aggressors were civilians, who led 99 attacks; followed by officials (41), security agents (31), unidentified elements (25) and employers (10).
In the capital city, Lima, 105 attacks were committed, a figure that the ANP considered a “historical record”, followed by Puno in South America with 13 and the port province of Callao with five attacks. The targets of the attacks were the digital press (84 incidents), the television (54), written (35) and radio (33) press. The majority of victims were male journalists (115 cases), who doubled the number of attacks on women (55), and then the media itself (36).
Among the most notable cases are the threats on social networks suffered by the photojournalist of the newspaper La Industria de Trujillo, Alí Iván Orbegoso Cipra, for taking a photo of a policeman at the time he points his weapon at a protester during the protests of the agrarian strike in Chao, Virú province, La Libertad region.
In another case, the Fourth Criminal Chamber for Proceedings with Free Prisoners of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima notified the journalist Paola Ugaz regarding the acceptance of the appeal presented by Carlos Abelardo Gómez de la Torre, who sued her for aggravated defamation demanding the payment of 2 million soles (half a million dollars) for repairs.
Likewise, the former presidential candidate of the Alliance for Progress, César Acuña, denounced journalist Christopher Acosta and the Penguin Random House publishing house for defamation to prevent the publication of the book “Plata como cancha”, where he reveals his rise in politics following becoming a a private education mogul in the north of the country.
The ANP also reported the activities of the radical right-wing group calling itself “La Resistencia” that generated 8 attacks on journalists at different times of the year, during coverage of social protest or stigmatizing on social networks.
This group was joined by other attacks by far-right radicals that promoted hate speech once morest journalists, such as the campaign “chapa tu caviar (catch a left-wing activist)”, or the groups of retired soldiers who, also in protests and cyberspace, have attacked or stigmatized journalists.
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