An Ecuadorian journalist claimed she received death threats after presenting a series of reports on drug consumption and carrying guns in schools in the city of Guayaquil, reported the Associated Press.
Reporter Nathaly Toledo, who works for the Teleamazonas television station, said she received the threats on her cellular telephone from an unknown number on Tuesday evening after airing the story, reported the website Prensa Latina. "After the report on drugs and guns my life was threatened. I'm making this public because I am not intimidated. My job is to report," she tweeted, according to the website.
The reporter filed a formal complaint with the prosecutor's office on Wednesday morning, reported the newspaper El Comercio. "The station has given me its support. They assigned me a bodyguard," the she told reporters, according to the newspaper.
Police said they were investigating the Guayaquil drug mafia as the possible source of the threats against the reporter, said the website UPI Español. The debate over drugs in schools heated up after a young girl died from an supposed overdose of narcotics, added the website.
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.
