Almost 20 days before the date set for the second round of Peru's presidential elections, the electoral campaign has begun to include more than just kissing babies and smiling for photos. In the past week a series of events are showing the polarisation and even radicalisation that has come to surround candidates Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala. Maybe this is a result of the virtual stalemate shown in the polls. The first [es] polls showed a distance of between 6 and 8 percentage points between Humala (who was in first place) and Keiko. The next [es] polls showed a difference of between 5 and 3.8 percentage points between the two candidates. Later polls [es] gave a difference of 1 or 2 points but this time with Fujimori in the lead, displacing Humala as the electoral favourite. And some of the latest [es] polls confirm this trend while others show Humala making a comeback. Candidates Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori For many voters this second round is just the way Mario Vargas Llosa described [es] it after he heard the results of the first round: “Humala or Keiko? That's like choosing between AIDS and cancer, a rather academic discussion.” A lot of people are resisting voting for Alberto Fujimori‘s daughter as they say they fear the return of the people who participated in her father's corrupt regime. On the other hand, many won't vote for Humala for fear of returning to an outdated model like communism, and falling under the influence of ‘chavismo‘. But is that really how things are? At this crossroads where Peruvians find themselves, the mass media should be fulfilling an informative and clarifying role, but this is far from reality. A recent poll shows [es] that the public sees the candidate for Fuerza 2011, Keiko Fujimori, as receiving greatest support from the media (48.3%). Ollanta Humala, on the other hand, is seen as having greater media support by about the same percentage of people who think neither candidate receives media support (18.1%). This perception is not gratuitous – a few weeks ago it was made public [es] that two journalists from the cable TV chanel CanalN were fired “for not supporting Keiko Fujimori”. Meanwhile, there were rumours [es] that another 4 journalists quit their jobs at the newspaper Perú 21 “for not attacking Ollanta Humala in their writing.” Coincidentally both media outlets are owned by the same group of companies. Gustavo Gorriti, journalist for IDL-Reporteros, recently declared [es] that there is a media front against Humala. Among other things he said that when talking about the threat that Ollanta's tendencies towards authoritarianism and chavismo pose to democracy, the media immediately support and promote Fujimori's candidacy, without considering that it may pose a much more serious threat to democracy and human rights. But it is not only a question of bias in a large section of the media, but also of events that involve various levels of violence, and that make it clear that fear, an element that is present mainly in the counter-campaign against Humala, figures not only discursively, but also in reality and, unfortunately, it comes in varying degrees from both sides. Javier Fernández from the blog Javi270270, reported [es] on the attack, or ‘escrache‘, of journalist Jaime de Altahus on leaving the television channel where he works (Canal N). A group of people (Javier mentions a Colectivo Dignidad [es] (Dignity Collective) that called a sit-in at the entrance to the channel's building, protesting their pro-Fujimori stance) surrounded and blocked the passage of the journalist's vehicle, while protesting against him with epithets of varying levels of offensiveness: lo que ha pasado ayer a Altahus no es nada nuevo. Ciertamente es una salida que algún grupo ha decidido frente a tanta parcialización de los medios como la que describió Gustavo Gorriti casi a la misma hora. In addition, Javier points out the lightness with which other media described the attack as coming from “Humalist mobs”. Altahus himself later stated [es]: “I don't know what their relationship is to Humala […] but they were obviously defending the position of Ollanta Humala”. Carlos Quiróz from the blog Peruanista mentions [es] that there could have been infiltrators in the protest who carried out the violent acts in order to later incriminate Humala's supporters. Another confusing event took place against Keiko Fujimori herself in the jungle region of Satipo. When the candidate was getting out of the truck that had taken her to a meeting, someone threw an egg at the vehicle.