Por Isabela Fraga
In the state of Mato Grosso, in central-western Brazil, two Brazilian television stations were fined by the electoral court for broadcasting unfavorable reports about the administration of Mayor Juarez Costa of the city of Sinop, reported the newspaper Diário de Cuiabá on Thursday, Aug. 9.
Together, the four fees amounted to about $80,000, reported the news site Olhar Direto. The most affected station was TV Cidade Verde, which was fined about $40,000. The Rede Bandeirantes station was fined about $37,000.
The court believed that the stations hurt the image of the current mayor and favored that of candidate Dilceu Dal Bosco, running for mayor in the next mayoral election, which will take place in October. According to Sinop Notícias, the owners of the fined stations have political ties with Dal Bosco's coalition: Rede Bandeirantes is managed by the candidate himself, and TV Cidade Verde is owned by Roberto Dorner, president of a political party that is part of Dal Bosco's coalition.
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.
