On Friday, Feb. 10, the organization Reporters Without Borders called for a thorough investigation into the killing of Brazilian journalist Mário Randolfo Marques Lopes and his wife, Maria Aparecida Guimarães, reported the news agency EFE. The couple was shot to death in Barra do Piraí, in the state of Río de Janeiro.
Editor of the news site Vassouras na Net, Lopes already had survived an assassination attempt in July 2011. The journalist was known for denouncing corruption among business owners and politicians in Vassouras, where he maintained his website before moving to Barra do Piraí out of fear of further attacks.
“Without jumping to conclusions, we hope that the police will explore all the possible links with this previous history,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. The organization noted that the "high level of violence affecting journalists and bloggers in 2011" is part of the reason Brazil fell 41 spots in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
The National Association of Newspapers also called on authorities to swiftly investigate the circumstances of the journalist's death.
