(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has condemned the beating which three journalists working for the Canal 6 de Julio television documentary production company - Mario Viveros Barragán, Juan Pablo Ramos Jiménez and Miguel Angel Fuentes Cortina - received at the hands of police officers when they filmed them arresting a youth gang in the centre of the capital on the night of 15 September 2006.
The press freedom organisation called on the special prosecutor for crimes against the press to issue summonses to the Federal District of Mexico City authorities who employ the police officers suspected of being responsible for the violence.
"This attack is a flagrant violation of press freedom," RSF said. "It is all the more unacceptable as it was carried out by police who were clearly convinced that their jobs guarantee them impunity. We call on Federal Justice Ministry Special Prosecutor David Vega Vera to demand an explanation from the Federal District administration and public security directorate and to bring the appropriate charges against them. There should also be administrative sanctions for this abuse of authority."
Members of the neighbourhood police and the Mexico City criminal police were arresting youth gang members in the heart of the city on the night of 15 September when, nervous at being filmed, they suddenly assaulted the three Canal 6 de Julio reporters who were filming them.
First they pushed and beat Viveros and Fuentes. Then about a dozen policemen furiously turned on Ramos and dragged him by the hair, before kicking and hitting him with batons, as well as smashing his camera and taking the cassette on which he had filmed the arrests. Ramos was hospitalized with multiple bruises.
In a message posted on the company's website ( http://www.canalseisdejulio.com ), Canal 6 de Julio Director Carlos Mendoza lambasted "the negligence and pride of Federal District head of government Alejandro Encinas, Government Secretary Ricardo Ruiz and Federal District Public Security Secretary Joel Ortega, who have so far refrained from taking any action in this case and are trying to treat it as a bureaucratic detail."
Created in the late 1980s, Canal 6 de Julio produces documentaries and investigative reports which are often on controversial subjects, such as the militarisation of the southern state of Chiapas after the Zapatista uprising in 1994.
