Edinaldo Figueira, newspaper founder, blogger and political party leader was shot to death Wednesday, June 15, in Brazil, according to Terra. Figueira, president of the Serra do Mel municipal chapter of Brazil's Workers' Party (PT in Portuguese) in Brazil's northern state of Rio Grande do Norte, had started a local newspaper and maintained a blog about local issues, according to Rede Brasil Atual.
The state leadership of the PT party did not rule out the possibility that he was killed for political reasons. "I can't talk about the source that gave us information, but there are indications that Edinaldo Filgueira had received threats," said Eraldo Silva, PT president in Rio Grande do Norte, as quoted by Diário de Natal.
However, Silva also stressed that with the attack on Filgueira, "the press also was attacked."
Bloggers suspect that the killing of the PT leader is linked to a survey Filgueira published on his blog that questions the accountability of city officials.
This blog is produced at The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin and funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
