The circumstances are going well, says Timothy. Although he is in pain everywhere. Muscle pain, back pain. Glass has gotten into his back. He cannot sit against something.
He really just wanted to take pictures last night, as he so often does as a press photographer during fires, accidents and other incidents. Normally his girlfriend is never in the car when he has to work, but this time coincidentally. They had just come from the hospital, Timothy’s girlfriend had fallen off a bicycle. On the way home, the photographer was notified that a car was on fire.
Fairly normal report
“It was a fairly normal report,” he tells RTL Nieuws. “On the spot we saw no smoke or fire, the fire brigade was there, so I took my camera.”
View the images of the incident here:
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“Then I saw four people approaching me. They immediately started threatening.” He was not really impressed, he often gets (death) threats thrown at his head as a news photographer, but he did have the feeling: this is going to get a bit further out of hand than just an altercation.
Timothy called the police. “At that moment one big spot of light came towards me.” When he saw that it was a shovel, he also saw that the vehicle was heading straight for him. In ‘a few seconds’ time, Timothy’s car was picked up and put down about fifty yards away.
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“I tried to drive away, that didn’t work, and then they came to our car with four men to smash the windows with clubs. My girlfriend was terrified.”
Then the car was lifted again, and at that moment Timothy was momentarily unconscious, he says. When he woke up, his back was on the ceiling of his car. His girlfriend was next to him. Their car had ended up in a ditch upside down.
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The couple was trapped, the fire brigade had to free them. Now things are going well: they have been checked by care providers and are now at home. They have filed a report and are being called by various media, friends and family. They still have many questions. “I have no idea why those men reacted to us like that. We are terribly shocked.”
All borders
The police have meanwhile arrested two people in Lunteren after the incident. The two are being questioned today. One suspect is said to have driven the shovel that pushed the car into a ditch. The second person arrested would have threatened two other photographers, who were also present at the car fire.
“Journalists must be able to do their work without danger,” says Naomi Hoekstra, Gelderland-Midden district chief of the police. “This crosses all borders, we do not accept this. Our colleagues have acted well. The investigation is in full swing.”
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‘Shocked’
The Association of Editors in Chief says it is shocked by the report about the attack on the press photographer. “This is a direct and life-threatening attack on two people, but it is also a new attack on journalism and freedom of the press.”
For the society ‘this is a new low point in the circumstances in which journalists have to do their work’. “It illustrates the constant threat under which journalism in the Netherlands has to operate.”
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