The year 2018 has posed several challenges for fact-checking initiatives in Brazil. In addition to general elections permeated by intense political polarization and the new weight of social networks in the dissemination of rumors, fact-checking professionals are also faced with the distrust of the public, still in doubt about the role of fact-checking in the Brazilian media environment.
Brazilian radio journalist Marlon de Carvalho Araújo, 37, was murdered on Aug. 16 inside his home in Riachão de Jacuípe, Bahia, in the northeastern region of Brazil. Police suspect that the crime was motivated by his "aggressive way of providing the news,” reported site G1.
Brazilian journalist, lawyer and writer Otavio Frias Filho died Aug. 21 in São Paulo at the age of 61. Newsroom director for Folha de S. Paulo since 1984, Frias Filho was responsible for the modernization project that made the newspaper a reference around the world for journalism made in Brazil.
The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) just launched a booklet in Portuguese titled "How to deal with harassment against journalists on social networks."
Brazilian journalist Claudio Weber Abramo, aged 72, died on Aug. 12 in São Paulo. A mathematician by training and a Master in philosophy, Abramo has been celebrated by his colleagues and friends as a pioneer of data journalism in Brazil and for his unshakeable defense of transparency and access to public information.
In Brazil, children's supplements in large newspapers were kids’ gateways to print journalism and the main space for the development of journalism for children and teens in the country for a long time, according to Juliana Doretto.
One in five Brazilians live in municipalities that do not have newspapers and local news sites or TV and radio stations. The "news deserts" correspond to just over half of the Brazilian municipalities, where 40 million people that are not served by local news coverage live.
Two Argentinian and one Brazilian journalist are among the recipients of the 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize recognizing careers that further inter-American understanding.
This is the second case of the Tim Lopes Program for the Protection of Journalists since Abraji launched the initiative in September 2017 to investigate murders, assassination attempts and abductions of media professionals and to continue the reports interrupted by the killers.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned Brazil for its negligence in investigating, prosecuting, and punishing those guilty of torture and murder of journalist Vladimir Herzog in 1975, in the context of the country's military dictatorship.
For the Comprova (Prove) project, journalists from 24 media outlets will partner to cross-check content heavily circulated in Brazilian social networks that is related to elections.
Radio journalist Jairo Sousa was killed while arriving at Rádio Pérola FM in the northern state of Pára in the early morning of June 21. He was going to host his program “Show da Peróla.”