On July 31, a vigil demanding overdue salary payments ended in violence for Djuma Culubali. The young Capital FM journalist said she was detained and assaulted by the rapid intervention force in Guinea-Bissau before she could report on the protest.

Culubali told DW that officers arrested her before the event even began, claiming they beat her until she lost consciousness.

"I was just about to prepare interviews with the protesting teachers when I saw a police car speeding toward us," said Culubali.

"It was a miracle that we weren't all run over by the car," she said. "The police got out and immediately started beating us. Then everything went black."

Culubali said she had to be treated at the central hospital in Guinea-Bissau and now suffers from severe headaches and facial paralysis.

Other journalists said they were also attacked by police officers on the same day.

"Journalist Ngouisam Casimiro Monteiro from Radio Popular was also seriously injured," said a protest note from the Union of Journalists and Social Communication Technicians of Guinea-Bissau, SINJOTECS, which described it as "another sad chapter in the usual police brutality against media representatives in our country."

"The situation of Guinea-Bissauan journalists is dramatic," said Sadibou Marong, the head of the NGO Reporters Without Borders........

© Deutsche Welle