By Adriana Prado
The site Midiamax, a digital newspaper in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, said in a message sent to the Brazilian Press Association (ABI in Portuguese) that it is being censored by the state government. According to Midiamax, access to its site is blocked on public computers connected to the system of the Superintendency of Information Management.
“It causes surprise and dismay the finding that the state government prohibits its servers from reading news from a specific newspaper, while other [media outlets] are exempt from this treatment," the newspaper said.
ABI sent an email to the governor of the state, André Puccinelli, in which it condemned the censorship and demanded the suspension of the blockade. Midiamax added that the mayor of Campo Grande, the state capital, said the press should be respected “even when the news contains acts or information adverse to whatever administration."
In June of 2010, the Midiamax site was down for four days because of virtual attacks, reported Folha de Dourados. It was suspected that the attacks were in reprisal for the newspaper denouncing the lack of transparency in the management of public funds and reports about the rigging of state elections. Months later, the state justice system prohibited the newspaper from publishing excerpts of recordings, made during a federal police operation, about a state corruption scandal. The judicial decision later was suspended.
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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.
