The government of Surinamese President Chan Santokhi regrets that there has been a heavy-handed confrontation between security officers of Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk and journalist Jason Pinas.
In a statement, the government wrote on Wednesday that it wants the Surinamese attorney general to investigate the journalist’s report with “care and urgency”.
According to the government, a thorough investigation is also essential because of the national and international attention that the incident has generated so far. If a careful investigation into the incident is not carried out, it could have “undesirable consequences for Suriname’s international image,” the statement said.
Pinas, a journalist at De Ware Tijd newspaper, said on Tuesday that he was taken into a stranglehold by security personnel from Brunswick. That happened in front of the parliament building, where he took some pictures of Brunswijk’s car and the people around it.
The Surinamese Association of Journalists (SVJ) said it was “shocked, outraged, but above all deeply disappointed and disgusted” a few hours after the incident.
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