Neo-Nazis daub graffiti and swastikas on state TV station in Valparaíso

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the threatening graffiti and swastikas that were sprayed on the outside of the studios of the state television station TVN in the central city of Valparaíso on 15 July after it broadcast a programme about Chile's Neo-Nazi groups. "This aggressive and sickening ideology, the eternal enemy of press freedom, has yet again turned on the press," the organisation said. "We call for the punishment of those responsible and for effective protection for the journalists concerned, and we urge these journalists not to censor themselves and thereby give in to this attempt to intimidate them." The graffiti, which insulted and threatened the TV station and made death threats against Mauricio Lombardi and other journalists, appeared after the broadcasting on 14 July of an "Informe Especial" programme portraying Chile's Neo-Nazis as the violent and xenophobic adherents of a primitive ideology and referring to cases of murders or extremely violent attacks by Neo-Nazi groups. TVN has filed a complaint with the office of the public prosecutor in charge of the Valparaíso area.