A crowd attacked seven journalists in the southwestern coast of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, forcing the journalists to surrender their camera equipment and erase photos shot on Sunday, Sept. 2, reported Proceso.
Reporters were threatened when they entered the town of San Pablo Huixtepec where locals planned to publicly punish and lynch two thieves they had captured, according to the newspaper Milenio.
The press organization Article 19 criticized riot police present for not stopping the townspeople from attacking the reporters David García and Lizbeth Gómez from TV Azteca, Ivan Flores and Esteban Marcial from the newspaper Noticias, Jorge Luis Plata and Alberto López from the newspaper El Imparcial, and Jorge Pérez, reporter for Tiempo de Oaxaca, with machetes.
Article 19 released a statement denouncing the authorities' decision not to stop the attack against the press, saying it demonstrated a hostile attitude toward the media.
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.
