By Sergio Duran
Antônio Carlos Almeida Campelo, a judge in Brazil’s 4th Federal Civil Court in the northern state of Pará, issued an injunction blocking journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto from publishing any information about a case against several business people in the state, Diário Online reports.
The court order says the journalist will be arrested and forced to pay a $120,000 fine if he writes about the cast against Grupo O Liberal executives Romulo Maiorana Júnior and Ronaldo Maiorana, who have been charged with committing fraud to win government development funds.
Pinto wrote about the case, which is being held in a closed court, under judicial secrecy, in the bimonthly newspaper Jornal Pessoal (Personal Newsletter), which he has managed for 23 years.
“I plan to appeal this decision, which is abusive. My story defends the interests of the people that had their money misused,” Pinto said, quoted by Comunique-se.
The journalist has been targeted with judicial harassment in the past for his coverage of environmental issues in the Amazon region.
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.
