“They Use Bullets Because They Don’t Like the Truth:” New Violence Against Journalists and Community
“They Use Bullets Because They Don’t Like the Truth:” New Violence Against Journalists and Community Radio in Guatemala
Written by Jeff Abbot
Monday, 16 March 2015 11:38
Community radio is the heart of rural communities across Guatemala and Latin America. These radios stations are spaces for the transmission of not just news, but spaces for sharing the voice of the people in their own languages, and sharing their culture. Yet community radio stations have increasingly come under assault, especially in communities that are in resistance to mega-projects in their territory.
On January 20, the indigenous radio station Snuq Jolom Konob, which means the Mind of the People in the local Q’anjob’al language, in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango was closed and their staff threated after supporters of the municipal mayor blocked staff from entering the station. The 50 supporters had demanded that the reporters hand over their keys, and surrender the stations equipment – the reporters refused.
“We ask the national and international community support for this outrage against our media that has violated your rights to freedom of expression of thought,” wrote radio management in a statement on Facebook. There is little question for the leadership of the radio about where the censorship comes from.
“The mayor organized the people in the central park that blocked our access to the station,” said Lorenzo Mateo Francisco, the coordinator of radio Snuq’ Jolom Konob’. “We knew at that moment that the supporters would likely come for the members of the social movements (against the hydro and mining in the region), and they confuse us with members of the movement because we report on the movements; so we took refuge in other places to protect our families.”
More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5240-they-use-bullets-because-they-dont-like-the-truth-new-violence-against-journalists-and-community-radio-in-guatemala
