Owner of the newspaper Jornal da Praça, Luis Henrique Georges, was shot to death in the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, near the border with Paraguay on Thursday, Oct. 4, reported Uol.
Known as "Tolu," the businessman was attacked while driving a truck with two employees on board, according to the website A Gazeta News. One died, the other was in critical condition. The shots were fired from another truck that pulled up next to Tolu's vehicle.
Tolu recently purchased Jornal da Praça, the only newspaper in the region and the one slain journalist Paulo Rocaro worked for. Rocaro was killed on the same stretch road that Tolu was driving on in February 2012. The reporter frequently wrote about politics and drug trafficking, subjects police suspect motivated the killing.
In an interview with RBV News, Edumundo Tazza, editor in chief of the newspaper, said that Friday's cover story had strong accusations against one of the candidates in the city's hotly contested municipal election. "We cannot accuse anyone, there is no evidence, but it's very coincidental that this attack took place after the newspaper published the accusations," said Tazza.
The Brazil-Paraguay border is considered a risky area for journalists. The International Press Institute (IPI) called it "a lawless zone and an important transit point for illegal guns and drugs." Besides attacks, death threats are also common, including one against Paraguayan journalist Cándido Figueredo.
The first half of 2012 has made Brazil one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, according to a study from the International News Safety Institue. Eight journalists have been killed so far in 2012. The killing of Tolu follows the cases of Laércio de Souza, Mario Randolfo Marques Lopes, Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues, Onei de Moura, Divino Aparecido Caravalho, Décio Sá, and Valério Luiz de Oliveira. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 75 percent of attacks on journalists go unpunished in Brazil.
CPJ reported that during 2012 more journalists were killed because of their work in Brazil than any other country in the Americas.
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.
