By Isabela Fraga
The killings of 12 Brazilian journalists between August 2010 and July 2012 prompted the National Association of Newspapers (ANJ in Portuguese) to announce a "special alert," reported the news agency EFE. The alert was announced during the opening of the 9th ANJ Congress, on Monday, Aug. 20, in São Paulo.
The ANJ also reported an increasing number of attacks against journalists, as well as freedom of expression violations in the country, according to the news site Paraná Online. Besides the violence, judicial rulings that prevented news outlets from publishing information were also mentioned by the organization as one of the factors for the alert. "Prior-censorship by judicial ruling is an offense against... freedom of expression defined by the constitution," said ANJ.
So far in 2012, seven journalists have been killed in Brazil. The most recent case was the killing of sports commentator Valério Luiz, in Goiás. Brazil is among the most dangerous countries for journalism, according to a research by the International News Safety Institute published at the beginning of August 2012.
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.
