On Nov. 1, an explosive detonated in front of the building of a newspaper publishing company in Chile, according to the news agency EFE. No one was injured in the explosion, although several windows were destroyed. The company, Copesa, publishes the Chilean newspapers La Tercera, La Cuarta, and La Hora, as well as the magazine Que Pasa.
According to police, there were no indications of those responsible for the attack nor a motive for the bomb, which was placed inside a fire extinguisher, reported La Nación.
A week earlier, another bomb was discovered in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago, but was deactivated before it exploded. Investigators believe the incidents are related because of the similar characteristics of the explosives, explained Rádio Uchile.
In a statement, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) expressed concern over the attack and called for more safeguards for the press, also referencing other recent attacks against the press including the shooting of a TV channel's vehicle with reporters inside it in Argentina and the armed attack against a journalist in Honduras.
Milton Coleman, president of IAPA and Washington Post senior editor, said that "although on this occasion there were no fatal victims, what is needed is for the authorities to be increasingly aware of the dangers which media and journalists are facing. If corrective action is not taken and press freedom is not ensured, experience shows us that the risk is that the press will resort to self-censorship, to the detriment of the public’s ability to receive reliable and independent information.”
Governmental spokesman Andrew Chadwick condemned the explosion, calling it an “attack on press freedom,” according to the news site El Dínamo.
