By Isabela Fraga
In the morning of Thursday, Sept. 13, two men broke into the offices of Rádio Farol in the northeastern city of União dos Palmares in Brazil and planted a bomb that exploded, destroying the broadcaster's studio, reported the newspaper Tribuna Hoje.
According to the newspaper Gazeta Alagoas, the attack took place after the station aired a conversation between current mayor of União dos Palmares, Areski de Freitas, and the ex-governor of Alagoas and current candidate for mayor, Manoel Gomes de Barros. Municipal elections in Brazil are set for October. It is worth noting that Rádio Farol is opposed to Mayor de Freitas' administration and his political party, reported the magazine Exame's website.
The explosion caused the broadcaster's ceiling, serving as the first floor of a building in the city center, to collapse, destroying all of Rádio Farol's equipment and forcing the station to go off the air, reported the website Alagoas em Tempo Real. No one was in the building when it exploded and there were no injuries.
The União dos Palmares military police suggested that security cameras from shops across from the station could have filmed the bombers entering the building, according to the website Alagoas 24 Horas. Police have not ruled out a political motivation for the attack but said they would still investigate the case, reported the website Tribuna União.
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.
