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Formosa province (image: Wikipedia)
According to journalist Rodrigo Alegre and producer Paula Bernini, they were intercepted by a group of men when travelling to a Wichi community near El Potrillo, in the west of the province, to film a report about local schools.
“A Toyota van driven by Moisés Fernández, director of the Institute for Aboriginal Communities (ICA), blocked us off,” Alegre reported last night. “Around 15 to 20 people surrounded the van and told us we couldn’t continue on our way, nor film, without authorisation. One person told us we had three minutes to leave or they would take our van.”
After refusing to turn back, the crew say they were escorted to a nearby school to a meeting of around 80 to 100 people. “They asked us all types of questions… what were we doing there, what were we filming, they said that we were not telling the truth about what’s going on there,” described Alegre.
“They said they were representatives of indigenous communities but the leader was clearly Fernández, who is linked to provincial legislator Roberto Vizcaíno,” said Alegre, who claimed that Vizcaíno himself was in the area making phone calls.
However, Vizcaíno rejected the claims. “It’s a complete lie. I have never threatened a journalist. The only truth is that the aborigines in El Potrillo are annoyed by the lies of these people, and when the journalist crew came they told them that, especially after they refused to listen to them,” Vizcaíno said in Diario Formosa.
The incident came days after PPT aired a report criticising the provincial authorities for not rebuilding schools that had been damaged by floods in 2007. The report showed two schools in Wichi communities that did not have proper walls or materials for the children, but was criticised by local authorities for giving a partial view of the situation.
Community leader in El Potrillo, Eliseo Palomo, also told news portal Formosa360 that no one threatened the journalists, who refused to listen and then left of their own accord.
“We asked them to record the truth. Of course, we don’t deny there is still much to be done, but we also told them that they should understand what this area was like yesterday, and how much has changed for the better,” said Palomo. “They denied us any chance to tell or show them, and left it clear that they came with orders to film squalor and nothing else.”
In another incident the media yesterday, prominent political journalist Gustavo Sylvestre’s car was set alight by an unknown assailant.
The post TV Journalists Claim Harrassment by Formosa Authorities appeared first on The Argentina Independent.
