A top official in the Social Defense Secretariat in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, Colonel Elías Augusto Siqueira de Souza, was fired last week after pressuring a local journalist to reveal his sources, Folha de Pernambuco reports.
The colonel wanted Jornal do Commercio reporter João Valadares to reveal the identities of soldiers who were anonymously sourced in a series of articles about problems within the state’s Military Firefighter Corps.
According to pe360graus.com, Governor Eduardo Campos, who ordered the firing, said: “Our government is transparent in principle and in policy. We believe that the Constitutional provision that guarantees everyone access to information and protects source secrecy is essential to democracy.”
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.
