"In one week, five journalists suffered attacks and threats while doing journalistic coverage [in Bolivia]. The National Association of Journalists of Bolivia (ANPB, by its Spanish acronym) and the Journalists Association of La Paz (APLP) denounced the violence that has started up again against journalists in the context of social protests in the country.
Journalists Helga Velasco from Cadena A, Carla Mercado from the Unitel network, Iris Toro from radio Kollasuyo, Sergio Mendoza from Los Tiempos, and a journalist from TV OFF suffered attacks and were threatened at different times while at work.
On Tuesday, March 7, police officers fired tear gas directly and intentionally against journalists Velasco and Mercado, when they were reporting live on the protest march of the Urban Teachers organization in the city of La Paz, according to the Monitoring Unit of the National Press Association (ANP).
A day later, on March 8, a TV OFF journalist was injured in the knee when he was covering the national mobilization of teachers, according to the ABI news agency, from a press release from the journalistic organization.
The Kollasuyo radio journalist Iris Toro was attacked and suffered an attempt to have her cell phone taken because she filmed the moment that a group headed by Ada Vargas and Zenobia Guarayo tried to beat the president of the Potosí Parliamentary Brigade, Abelardo Colque.
[...]
[The ANPB and the APLP] indicated that the State must protect the work of journalists, identify risks and promptly adopt protection measures to avoid violence. Also, to guarantee that the Police respect and protect the work of the press.”
