Despite the denouncements of international organizations and charges of kidnapping and torturing two photographers, Chilean security forces continue to crack down on the practice of freedom of expression. On Nov. 21, police intimidated and attacked journalists covering a protest against a tribute to a former member of the military dictatorship, reported the website Opera Mundi.
Brazilian reporter Victor Farinelli, correspondent in Santiago, Chile for Opera Mundi and the newspaper Diário da Liberdade, had his camera seized by the police, who erased the photos on the memory card, tossed the batteries, and smashed the camera on the ground, reported Diário da Liberdade.
Farinelli posted on the blog Narrativas Argentinas that other reporters were also targeted by police, including Esteban Sanchez of Rádio ADN, who was detained a beaten in a police van without being told why. "Unfortunately, I was not the only journalist who suffered police violence on that long day," Farinelli said.
According to other reports by Opera Mundi, Chilean police have proposed a series of measures to mitigate violence against journalists, after a meeting with the Chilean Association of Foreign Correspondents. This, however, did not prevent the most recent spat of violence.
Since the beginning of the student protests in Chile, reporters have suffered police violence, including arbitrary detention, physical attacks, and damage to their equipment.
