Gibraltar police have arrested two Spanish journalists for a “breach of the peace” after they annoyed locals by raising the Spanish flag in the British territory, AFP reports.
The two journalists raised the flag on the beach of La Caleta while filming for a television programme, but were met with insults from locals. The programme’s producer told the Spanish Periodista Digital publication that when local residents saw the journalists put up the flag, they started to shout abuse and throw stones at them. Eventually, someone called the police.
The police then detained the pair in the local police station.
Spanish TV network Telemadrid identified the journalists as Cake Minuesa, presenter of the show “Citizen Cake”, and his cameraman. Minuesa is a conservative journalist known in Spain as the “troublemaker of the right”. He is well known for his confrontational and comedic style of journalism, and previously achieved notoriety by infiltrating a meeting of 70 supporters of the terrorist group ETA and asking them awkward questions.
The territory of Gibraltar, located on the southern Spanish coast at the point where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean, has been ruled by Britain since 1713, but Spain still claims sovereignty.
It has become the scene of numerous squabbles between the two countries, with Britain maintaining a naval base on the territory. An attempt by Tony Blair to broker a power-sharing deal between Britain and Spain was overwhelmingly rejected by the territory’s population, who are strongly pro-British.
Although still a British colony, it now has a high level of autonomy, able to set its own tax rates and internal laws.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.