Peru: National Association denounces police violence against journalists during protests (La República [Spanish] - 3/6/2023)

Peru: National Association denounces police violence against journalists during protests (Spanish)

They pushed Paola Ugaz against the wall and hit her in the chest with their fist; Paty Condori was arrested at the Peruvian National Police (PNP) Counter-Terrorist Directorate (DIRCOTE), despite identifying herself as a journalist. Walter Hupiu was hit on the back with a shield and already on the ground they paid him to prevent him from taking photos of police mistreatment of a protester.

Reprehensible: Walter Hupiu is one of the 146 journalists attacked. The police were merciless with him for wanting to photograph the mistreatment of a protester.

Pamela Palacios, La República

The work of national and foreign press media has been fundamental since the current political and social crisis began in the country and has been expressed in the streets with demonstrations. Their records have made it possible to capture the unstoppable mobilizations and the repression of the forces of order against the protesters and even against themselves.

According to the National Association of Journalists (ANP), from December 7, 2022, to February 9, there have been 169 attacks against reporters. The Executive Director of the Peruvian Press Council (CPP), Rodrigo Salazar, estimates that 60% of these came from the police.

In this context, the Government has published a security protocol for journalistic coverage of the protests, which has received a series of criticisms because it places the police as the creator of guidelines for journalistic work, such as the location in marches, in addition to not considering police officers as potential aggressors.

They forgot your credential

On February 4, the correspondent for ABC in Spain, Paola Ugaz, was attacked by a police officer who put his fist on her chest and pushed her against the wall, despite having identified herself as a journalist. She was following a peaceful march from Plaza Dos de Mayo.

“When I arrive at Avenida Grau, the first tear gas bomb sounds and between 15 to 20 police officers appear with tear gas bomb launchers. I see a group of policemen coming and, at that moment, I take out my journalist's credential, I raise my hand, and one of the policemen puts his fist on my chest and pushes me against the wall," said Ugaz, who was rescued by two women to then jump onto the track from the ditch on Avenida Grau to protect themselves, ending up with a bruised chest.

Regarding the protocol, Ugaz questions that "in no case does it mention the modalities of attacks on journalists and the importance of the police respecting journalists during coverage."

Journalist Paola Ugaz was attacked by the PNP in demonstrations.

Arrested in San Marcos

Paty Condori, from the Juliaca Journalist Network, was arrested on January 21 during a police intervention at the San Marcos University, despite having a vest and press credentials.

“I was with the citizens of Juliaca who had come to protest. All the people ran away, hid in the bathroom showers. I hid under a mattress, and I was filming. I left because the police came with cameras and I told them that I was a journalist, but they told me that I was still under arrest. A general told me to take off my vest and my credential. I refused," Condori said.

She was detained at the DIRCOTE, where she was searched and forced to sign a "good treatment act" because, otherwise, the lawyers would not enter. Condori recounted witnessing that the police demanded that the protesters not continue marching and that if they continued protesting, they would hang their photos on a mural, where they publish the photographs of captured terrorists.

Condori also does not agree with the protocol in question, considering it a violation of the freedom of journalistic work. “They tell us where we should be located during the protest and if we are not next to the police, then they hit us and arrest us. The journalist will always look for the best position for him to capture images that this government does not want to be shown,” he stressed.

PNP beat him up

The case of photojournalist Walter Hupiu reflects the brutal aggression that the police are capable of against a journalist who, risking his integrity, seeks to capture with his lens the arbitrary detention and beatings that police officers inflicted on a protester. His commitment to journalistic work led several officers to beat him and try to handcuff him.

On January 4, Hupiu was covering a demonstration in San Martín square, the same one that was withdrawn to Manco Cápac square, where he saw several policemen beating a protester and using their shields to make a fence to prevent journalists from recording what was happening.

“On the perimeter of the square they had detained a protester who they brutally beat on the ground. The police personnel made a fence with their shields to prevent the media from graphing. What I did was look for a point of view between the shields and I insisted on this purpose until six police officers suddenly attacked me from behind with a shield blow and then they struggled to knock me down, while they hit me in the back, the shoulders, the kidneys,” Hupiu recalled. Already on the ground, a policeman put his boot on Hupiu's chest to handcuff him.

“He checked my credential hanging from my chest and then realized that it was from the press. I was free,” she recounted.

Regarding the protocol, he commented that it is an instrument that seeks to subdue the press. “It is a discriminatory filter and a threat to the work of the press. He wants it to be only the members and the foreign press who cover it and from the place assigned to them so as not to see anything”, he opined.

Tags: #Peru #Protests #PNP #PressFreedom