Spain: Journalist Attacked, Harassed And Impeded At Work While Covering Pro-Independence Protests
Location: Spain, Barcelona
Date: October 14, 2020
Felipe VI's visit to Barcelona this Friday for an awards ceremony together with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has sparked outrage with many pro-independence protesters taking to streets to protest monarchy. However the protests took a violent turn when a group of men attacked and interrupted the live broadcast of Telecinco reporter Mayka Navarro.
La nueva democracia es esto según algunos. Siempre en el team @maykanavarro pic.twitter.com/fFwURoYZCd
— Sergi Altadill (@sergialtadill) October 9, 2020
Mayka Navarro was at the protests scene on Friday, covering the protests for The Ana Rosa Program when a group of protesters surrounded Mayka, yelling at her and hitting her with a flag pole. As Mayka Navarro spoke live from outside the Estación de Francia where the demonstrators were, more than a dozen people gathered around her shouting insults and making rude hand gestures. Others shouted for her to “get out of here” and tried to repeatedly block the view of the camera.
"There is a funny man who has been trying to cover the device all morning and I do not feel like it, man," the journalist said during her broadcast with some protesters asking in Catalan to stop her footage. "No, I am not leaving. I'm working, I'm working!" However, she has not succeeded and has had to terminate the broadcast.
What's more, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Barcelona Police) themselves passed behind the Telecinco team without intervening in the face of harassment of journalists.
The insults towards the journalist have been so many that the program has had to broadcast after the live connection on how the previous minutes for Mayka Navarro have been, who has endured shouts and insults a few inches from her face. While Mayka was wearing a mask throughout the incident the protesters that are seen to be unmasked put the safety and health of the journalist at risk by breaching social distancing guidelines.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism is gravely upset by the attacks and impediment of work toward Mayka Navarro. We condemn the action of these men who claim to be for democracy yet who clearly showed no respect to freedom of the press. We are further appalled by the inaction of the security forces in face of harassment which also breaches Covid-19 measures and endangers the journalist. We ask Catalan authorities to take swift action against such acts of barbarism.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.