Sports journalists attacked in Peru and Iraq
Two radio journalists in Peru were physically assaulted by the manager of a professional football club as they were reporting on a match played 31 May
The journalists, Robin Ipanaque Hidalgo and Walter Maldonado Maguiña from Radio Melodía i Huaraz were giving their views about the team’s performance from a transmission cabin at the stadion when manager Isaías Terry Valverde from Sport Ancash professional football club entered the cabin.
He proceeded to beat them up and threatened them to stop them from continuing their commentary.
The journalists filed a complaint with the local police, reports IFEX.
TV sports commentator gunned down
A sports commentator for the Iraqi state-owned television station Al-Iraqiua was shot dead on May 31 in Baghdad.
According to Agence France-Presse Jaafar Ali, who presents a sports program, was gunned down as he left his home in the Shora Rabia district of southern Baghdad.
There was no immediate indication as to why Ali was murdered, though sports-related figures have been targeted recently.
Recently, gunmen in Baghdad killed the coach of the Iraqi national tennis team and two players, reportedly for wearing Western-style tennis shorts.
On 18 May, 15 members of the Iraqi Taekwondo team were kidnapped between Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, as they returned from a tournament in neighboring Jordan.
Their abductors have since demanded 100,000 dollars in ransom, a member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee said.
In February, a former Iraqi wrestling champion was gunned down in front of his family in the southern port city of Basra.
At least 93 media professionals, mostly Iraqis, have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.