On Friday, April 19, the chief of police in Minas Gerais confirmed the participation of police officers in the killing of two journalists in Vale do Aço, reported the website R7. Members of the civil and military police are under investigation for the killings.
Various journalists have claimed that their coverage was restricted during the recent elections in Venezuela, won by Hugo Chávez’s designated successor Nicolás Maduro. According to the Press and Society Institute (IPYS), some local journalists had problems getting into voting centers and were impeded by the authorities.
A photojournalist was shot to death on Sunday evening, April 14, in the city of Coronel Fabriciano, Minas Gerais, reported Estado de Minas. Walgney Assis Carvalho, 43 years old, was a freelancer for the newspaper Vale do Aço, the same publication where slain reporter Rodrigo Neto worked. Both worked the police beat and were known for denouncing crimes involving law enforcement. This is the fourth case of a journalist killed in Brazil so far in 2013.
A research from the non-governmental organization Article 19 finds that one journalist or human rights defender is killed every four weeks because of their work.
On the morning of Friday, March 8, political journalist Rodrigo Neto was killed in Ipatinga, Minas Gerais, after having received several death threats, which, according to him, were connected to his reporting, reported the newspaper Vale do Aço.
Loved by some, hated by others. Few struck a middle ground when it came to Hugo Chávez and the same went for his relationship with the media in Venezuela, a country he led for 14 years.
The Attorney General of Goiás accused five suspects of the murder of journalist Valério Luiz de Oliveira on Wednesday, Feb. 27, said the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
A radio reporter known for his crime reporting was shot dead in the city of Jaguaribe, Ceará on Friday, Feb. 22, according to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo. He was the second journalist killed in Brazil this year. The first killed also worked for a radio station in a community north of Rio de Janeiro.
While freedom of expression remains a fundamental right guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution, the court system has become an effective tool for crippling media organizations and silencing critical journalists and bloggers in the country. A timeline from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas shows that there were 16 cases of the courts being used to censor journalists in 2012 alone.
A Brazilian court ruled on Wednesday, Feb. 20, that the blog "Falha de São Paulo," a parody of the Folha de São Paulo newspaper will remain offline, reported Carta Capital.