The headquarters of the Venezuelan newspaper Qué Pasa was attacked with a grenade on May 28. No one was hurt during the attack, however the building suffered damages, reported the news site Clases de Periodismo, on Monday, June 4.
Critical of the government, the newspaper in Maracaibo, in northeast Venezuela, complained about the attack with the headline: "They threw a grenade to shut us up."
The newsroom chief of Qué Pasa, Juan Luis Urribarrí, said to the news agency EFE that the explosion happened at about 7:30 PM, while dozens of journalists were working on closing the next day's edition. "Suddenly, we heard a loud explosion outside of the newspaper headquarters. It was so loud that the walls shook," he said.
According to the director of the newspaper, Pedro Pablo Guisandez, the reports the newspaper publishes and its critical editorial line motivated the attack. "We will not step back from practicing freedom, from practicing journalism and from timely and accurate information," he said during an interview with the broadcaster Globovisión.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
