A Brazilian journalist was attacked and his camera was damaged while covering a protest on the streets of Teresina, in the state of Piauí on Jan. 19, reported TV Piauí. The reporter believes his attacker was a security guard with the Union of Urban Transport Businesses of Teresina.
Jhone Sousa, a reporter for the online publication 180 Graus, was covering a protest over a fare increase for city buses when a man approached him, yanked out his camera's memory card and broke the camera, according to the publication.
The journalist tried to continue reporting but he was threatened by the supposed security guard. "He said if I kept taking photos, he wasn't going to be responsible for what happened to me. But we weren't intimidated and continued doing our job," Sousa told the website Imprensa. The journalist said the publication was already preparing to file a complaint with the courts over the incident.
The Union of Journalists of Piauí denounced the attack in solidarity with Sousa. Since the beginning of the protests in Piauí, other reporters have also been the targets of violence from supposed security forces.
