Miami (November 13, 2020).- The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) strongly condemned the attacks by the police against journalists and photographers covering the social protests in Peru. The organization asked the authorities to investigate the acts of violence, in which protesters were also affected.
The National Association of Journalists (ANP), the National Media Association, the Journalists Guild of Peru and the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS) denounced that agents of the National Police of Peru attacked at least 16 photojournalists and reporters from El Comercio, La República, Wayka, Exitosa and Huku Comunicaciones, among other media. The events occurred on November 9 and 10, during coverage of the protests in Lima over the dismissal of President Martin Vizcarra and the appointment of Manuel Merino as interim President.
The president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati, of the Honduran media company Grupo Opsa, urged, "To stop the aggressions, investigate the complaints and respect the free exercise of journalism in democracy, in moments of political upheaval in which citizens need to be informed".
The president of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, director of the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior, expressed his support for Peruvian journalists. "We strongly condemn acts of violence, the excessive use of force and the limitation in their work against those who fulfill their duty to inform."
Canahuati and Jornet evoked the fourth article of the Declaration of Chapultepec that pressure, intimidation of journalists, the violence of any kind, and impunity for perpetrators, severely restrict freedom of expression and of the press, and that these "acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly."
IAPA is a non-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 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
