The São Paulo State Union of Professional Journalists denounced threats journalists received and other obstacles they faced while reporting in the interior of the state at the beginning of 2013, according to a statement form the organization on Feb. 13.
The Brazilian National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ in Portuguese) filed a complaint with the Public Ministry in Sergipe on Feb. 8, regarding its criminal proceedings against journalist José Cristian Góes, which began at the end of January because of a fictional post on his blog for the Infonet website.
An exhaustive report from the Committee to Protect Journalists on the situation for journalists around the world placed Brazil and Ecuador among the top ten countries where press freedom suffered the most during 2012, and named Mexico as the country with the most missing journalists in the world.
The Brazilian newspaper Diario da Região reported that city councilman Cesar Gelsi threatened a political reporter for the publication, Rodrigo Lima. The threats followed articles the journalist published calling Gelsi "the living-dead of politics" and included him in a list of officials charged with failing to pay backed taxes.
The owner of radio station Sin Fronteras 98.5 FM Marcelino Váquez was gunned down and killed on Wednesday Feb. 6 in front of his work place in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, near the border with Brazil, website Paraguay.com informed.
The Attorney General of Maranhão, Regina Lúcia de Almeida Rocha, claimed last week that the defense in the trial for the murder of journalist Décio Sá is attempting to “delay the course of proceedings” against the accused, said G1.
After seven months of investigation, police in the Brazilian state of Goiás are closer to solving the killing of sports commentator Valério de Oliveira. Last Friday, Feb. 1, police arrested three suspects for the crime, reported the newspaper Diário da Manhã. The following day, the former deputy chairman of the Goiás Atheletic Club Maurício Sampaio was also arrested for alledgedly ordering the killing.
Brazilian photographer Jean Schwarz for the newspaper Zero Hora was beaten while he tried to cover a meeting of road workers in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, on Jan. 22, reported the publication.
Mexico and Cuba were the worst places for journalists in the Americas, tensions between the government and privately-owned media continued to escalate in Ecuador and Argentina, and Canada lost its position as press freedom leader in the continent.
Lúcio Flávio Pinto, founder and lone reporter for the blog Jornal Pessoal, has won eight prizes, published 22 books and been sued 33 times for his work as a journalist. Pinto's experience is emblematic of judicial censorship in Brazil.
A fire at a Brazilian nightclub in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul killed over 230 people and left 129 injured in the early morning of Sunday, Jan. 27, reported The New York Times and Zero Hora.
Courts in Pará ruled once again against journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto, winner of last year's Vladimir Herzog Amnesty and Human Rights Award, among several other accolades for his work in recent years.