By Maira Magro
Civil police are investigating the break-in and theft of computer and printing equipment at the newspaper Correio Mariliense, in the city of Marilia, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The newspaper said the crime showed signs of being a political attack to disrupt the newspaper's operations, but according to O Globo, police are investigating the case as a common robbery.
The Correio Mariliense said that on Monday, Nov. 1, criminals broke into the newspaper's offices, short-circuited the building's electrical system and stole the central computer that controlled the pre-printing of the newspaper. The invaders also set various fires in areas where toilet paper and flammable chemical products were kept. "Everything leads us to believe that the objective was to destabilize the newspaper's work routine," the Correio Mariliense wrote.
The National Association of Newspapers (ANJ) issued a statement condemning the attack and calling for a rapid investigation, indicating that this was not just a common robbery.
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.
