Rosary Indymedia denounces a new and brutal aggression to the Gustavo correspondent, Goatherd and condemns the violation to the right of freedom of expression and to the social access to the information. Friday, the 23rd of May at approximately 1:00am, Gustavo Goatherd was covering the conflict in the Faculty of Humanities and Arts and was attacked and seriously hurt in its left eye. Our companion is responsible for the coverage of the of election of director and the events of the National University of Rosary for June of 2007. The presence of groups of fanatical individuals that usually act with violence at decisive moments of the university political life, acting like gangs inside the University, the persecution to students and intimidation to the independent press, was the previous frame of this aggression.

Indymedia is mass media that have tried to show the conflict of the UNR in its complexity, giving space to all the voices, unlike the slanted cover that offer massive means. For that reason the developed task has caused fear: taking pictures, filming with mobile phones and verbal provocations

On May 23rd, and immediately after finishing the coverage of the student mobilization that ended in the building of Rectorado, Gustavo and a friend went to the Comics Bar near the Faculty of Humanities, and had their conversation recorded on an mp3 device by another table. This action came from the adjoining table, where they were students of arts from the same faculty of Humanities and at least one militant and recognized leader of the National Reform Movement (MNR)

Then another one of the students that was at the table stood up for no reason stopped in front of the table of Gustavo and took the bottle of beer which Gustavo had just consumed and then struck him in the face breaking the bottle, causing one serious injury. This caused an emergency operation and later internment of our companion who to today lost the vision of his left eye.

The gravity of the injury implied the possible loss of the ocular globe. Thanks to the medical equipment of the Provincial Hospital of the Centenary of Rosary, the eye was saved but the recovery of the vision is still uncertain. Also it is possible to mention that Gustavo is now in a process of domiciliary internment, prevented not only to take its professional activities ahead, bases of its economic support, but also of all type of movement or activity that implies the minimum effort.

This fact has direct antecedents in provocations received by Gustavo Goatherd while he carried out journalistic tasks. June 8th of 2007, inside the Rectorado and before a group of people between whom were members of the Council Superior of the UNR, a member of the university, militant assembly of the Mulberry Strip that appeared as “German” caused our companion photographing it and verbally along with another non-educational woman pertaining to the Mulberry Strip. The 10 of April of 2008, while they were developed the scrutiny of the elections in the Faculty of Political Science in an atmosphere rarefied by the robbery of a ballot box, Gustavo was caused again being photographed by a person that was also identified like noneducational close friend to the Dwelled Strip, inside the Student Secretariat of this faculty. The 13 of May of 2008 and while it covered the student protests against the implementation with the security deprived in the faculty of Humanities, the methodology of provocation in the door of the assembly hall was repeated where the educational assembly was being realised, this carried out time by an individual that refused to identify itself but recognized like militant of the Mulberry Strip. In each of these occasions, the use of the camera was part of a provocation action and harassment. These facts are part of the violence climate that is taken place at the moment in the National University of Rosary.

Although we do not know the predetermination of this aggression, we framed happened within the framework the politician previously mentioned. In this sense it is not to us accidental that the witnesses have recognized in the table from where they left to the provocations and the aggression for at least militant recognizing and student leader of the Reformist National Movement.

For that reason we demanded the cease of all activity or aggression with intimidation aims that violate the freedom of expression and work. We demand the investigation of happened and the punishment not only to the material authors of this violent aggression but also to the political people in charge of the same.

Indymedia Rosary

Indymedia Argentina

add a comment on this article