By Isabela Fraga
A photographer in the Brazilian state of Roraima alleged the head of the state's military police attacked him and ejected him from a government event on Dec. 23, 2012, reported the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
Photographer Janderson Nobre of the newspaper Folha de Boa Vista was covering the distribution of toys to children in the state capital, Boa Vista, when Coronel Edison Prola and other police officers attacked him and violently threw him out of the event. The reporter suffered bruises on his arms.
According to the newspaper Folha de Boa Vista, Roraima Governor Anchieta Júnior witnessed the attack, which was captured in a video recorded by the photographer at the 48-second mark. When questioned about what motivated the hostilities, the coronel said, "Just because I wanted to. Say it was Coronel Prola who threw you out [of here]," reported the newspaper.
The deputy secretary of communications of the state of Roraima denied there was any attack on the reporter. Instead, she said the photographer was ejected from the event for taking a picture of a woman without permission and because he did not have press credentials from the newspaper, reported Folha de São Paulo.
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.
