"The radicalization of the political landscape has seriously affected the press freedom situation and journalistic activity in Brazil. The number of serious assaults on journalists increased by 34.2% between Jan. 1 and May 15, 2023, compared to the same period last year.
The so-called assault on the Three Powers Square in Brasília, on Jan. 8, was directly responsible for this worsening: 15.5% of the cases recorded in the first four and a half months of the year occurred on that single day. The data come from the new report 'Silencing the messenger: Impacts of political violence against journalists in Brazil,' published by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji, by its acronym in Portuguese).
For the first time since the start of Abraji's systematic monitoring of violence against journalists, which began in 2019, the category of 'Aggressions and attacks' surpassed that of 'Stigmatizing speech,' with a difference of 46.8%. During the past four years, Brazilian press professionals had suffered mainly verbal violence and online discrediting campaigns. In 2023, communicators became frequent targets of physical violence, serious threats, acts of intimidation and harassment, and episodes of theft and destruction of work equipment."
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