Journalists from Ecuador's public channel TC Televisión described the armed takeover by a group of men on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 9 in Guayaquil as an “extremely violent attack.” According to what they said, the men shot a cameraman in the leg and broke another's arm.
Around 2 p.m. on Jan. 9, and in the middle of the live news broadcast, the group of armed men entered violently, began to threaten those who were there, pointed their weapons at the channel's staff and demanded that the police not intervene.
The violent takeover was broadcast live for a few minutes. After an hour and a half, the police managed to regain control of the channel. According to authorities, 13 men were captured and will be prosecuted for terrorism.
More than 300 journalists from Ecuador and the world rejected the violent attack on the press, in a statement released on social networks. “What happened at TC Televisión is the most painful image of what the Ecuadorian press is experiencing. It has faced the rise of criminal violence in recent years without the minimum participation of the State to fulfill its responsibility to protect it,” the release says.
The statement points out that "it is another example of how organized crime targets the press."
