Miami (May 7, 2014)— The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) protested today, against the attack on and arrest of a news photographer in Colombia while he was covering demonstrations last week, the IAPA also called on the authorities to promptly look into what “could be seen as a disproportionate and unjustified action against press freedom.”
Esteban Vanegas, with the newspapers El Colombiano and Q’hubo, was attacked and detained by police in Medellín, Antioquia province, on May 1 as he was covering protest marches by workers and students. He took photos of a police ambush and on seeing what he was doing police officers hit him and took him into custody.
Another three journalists, Andrea Torres, Sebastián Carvajal and Juan Fernando Rojas, who were also covering the demonstration for the two newspapers, were also attacked. All had duly identified themselves as members of the press.
Vanegas was held for 12 hours and charged with attacking an authority, an offense that has been denied by eye-witnesses and shown to be untrue on videos taken by other journalists who were at the scene, among them the recording by H13N of the Teleantioquia channel http://bit.ly/1opX8aK, which showed the moment Vanegas was arrested.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, urged the local authorities to investigate the action of the police against Vanegas “especially as it occurred within the framework of his job.”
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, added, “The detention could be seen as a disproportionate and unjustified action against press freedom, for which it will be necessary, on the basis of the evidence presented and the testimony of eye-witnesses, to determine who was responsible and ensure that the security forces in turn respect the work of journalists.”
El Colombiano came out against Vanegas’ arrest, saying, “we do not regard this as a good precedent for the practice of press freedom.” The newspaper offered Vanegas its “moral and legal support” during the proceedings against him.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
