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Mexican police attack two journalists for reporting on student protests

The Mexican newspaper La Jornada de Guerrero claimed that one of its reporters was beaten and jailed in the southern city of Chilpancingo.

According to the newspaper, journalist Raúl Sendic García Estrada was at the state attorney general's office when he saw vans arriving with detained teachers jailed on Dec. 13. The journalist, who is also a university professor, phoned his newspaper's newsroom to report the event. When agents realized what Estrada was doing, they attacked him, took his cellphone, camera, wallet and identification, and locked him in a jail cell.

La Jornada de Guerrero reported that he was soon released and all his personal effects were returned except his cellphone. The journalist counted eight detained teachers and took their names down in a notebook but police tore the sheet out when he was released.

A journalist for the newspaper Trinchera, Eric Escobedo Amador, was also beaten by police and detained in the same city while covering a police crackdown on a student protest in the state of Guerrero on Dec. 12, according to the Center for Journalism and Ethics. The police director explained the journalist was attacked because he looked like a teacher, according to the newspaper La Jornada de Guerrero.