Behind Mexico, tied in second place are Brazil and Honduras as the Latin American countries with the most killings of journalists this year, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), reported Folha de S. Paulo. The numbers take into account only those crimes associated with the exercise of journalism.
The report cites four Brazilian journalists killed, all shot to death, including Luciano Leitão Pedrosa who was killed in Pernambuco in April, Valério Nascimento killed in Rio in May, Edinaldo Filgueira killed in Rio Grande do Norte in June, and Auro Ida, killed in Mato Grosso in July.
In just seven months this year, the region has seen more deaths than in the past 20 years, making 2011 the most tragic year for the press in Latin America.
Besides the growing violence, IAPA also cited the judicial persecution of journalists in Brazil as a threat to press freedom. For example, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo as been subject to prior censorship. As of July 31, the newspaper for two years has been barred from publishing reports about Fernando Sarney, the son of the Senate president.
In a special section, Estadão wrote about the censorship case, adding that at least 17 more media outlets suffer from censorship, according to data from the National Association of Newspapers (ANJ in Portuguese), the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), and IAPA.
Other Related Headlines:
» Knight Center (Judicial harassment against journalists: a new form of censorship in Brazil?)
» Knight Center (Brazil’s courts have become a censorship tool for the powerful, Deutsche Welle says)
