By Maira Magro
Thirty armed police officers in Tocantins state attempted to stop the circulation of Veja magazine for reporting on allegations involving the state’s incumbent gubernatorial candidate, Carlos Gaguim (PMDB), writes Veja blogger Reinaldo Azevedo.
The order was to seize all copies of the magazine when it arrived at the airport last weekend. According to Azevedo, there was no court order authorizing the operation, but the prosecutor asked the Federal Police to stop the magazine from reaching its distributor.
Ganguim’s campaign had just won an Electoral Court ruling that barred 84 media outlets from discussing a government investigation into a licensing fraud scheme involving the candidate. Several press and freedom of expression groups demonstrated against the decision, Veja adds.
The Knight Center’s "Map of Electoral Censorship in Brazil." is tracking restrictions on the Brazilian media in the buildup to the Oct. 3, 2010 elections.
See a larger version of the Knight Center Map of Electoral Censorship in Brazil.
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.
