A Peruvian journalist was shot from a truck by at least three unknown attackers while he was riding his motorcycle, said the news site RPP Noticias. The attack against Juan Carlos Yaya Salcedo took place in Lima on Tuesday Feb. 5, the site added.
The journalist, who was wounded in the thigh, was driving to his job at Radio Max where he hosts the show “Sin Escape” (“No Escape”), said IPYS’ website. The attackers fled while Yaya was left lying on the street until police came to help, said the website.
In a statement to IPYS, Yaya said he didn’t know the motive behind the attack, but added that three weeks ago he had denounced a series of irregularities committed in a district inside the capital. The police could treat the shooting as a threat or warning, since the attackers did not take any belongings, RPP Noticias said.
The attack takes place after journalist Robert Ascate del Águila denounced the mayor of Tarapoto in the region of San Martín (in the northeast of the country) for an attack on Feb. 3, IPYS said. Ascate was filming and following an official car used by the mayor, but when he walked up to ask for a statement, the mayor hit him with the door of the car while two members of his security beat him and confiscated his camera and cell phone.
In a report by IPYS, Cajamarca region and the country's capital were ranked as the most dangerous places for journalists in Peru in 2012. Ipys documented 18 aggressions in the region of Cajamarca, in the north of the country, and 18 other in Lima, in the southwest coast, the report said.
Additionally, public officials were the second most likely to attack journalists, according to another report by the National Associations of Journalists in Peru.
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.
