Luis Ángel Sas, an investigative journalist for elPeriódico, reported receiving death threats that made reference to his recent reports on Guatemalan military weapons that ended up in the hands of the Mexico-based criminal group Los Zetas, Cerigua reports. Sas – whose beat is drug trafficking, corruption, and crime – told Noticieros Televisa that he first received threats at the offices of elPeriódico while he was at an investigating organized crime conference in Panama. A recent report by a Guatemalan freedom of expression group called drug trafficking groups like Los Zetas one of the biggest threats to journalism
The government’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) is investigating reports of death threats against Milenio Semanal magazine reporter Jorge Alejandro Medellín, Noroeste reports.
On Oct. 18, journalist Francisco Gomes de Medeiros was killed in front of his home in the city of Caicó in Rio Grande do Norte state, O Globo’s Repórter de Crime blog reports. F. Gomes, as he was known, worked in radio in the city, was an active blogger, and collaborated with various media outlets in the state. He is the second Brazilian journalist killed in three days.
Approximately 500 members of unions, social movements, and journalism groups gathered at the São Paulo Journalists’ Union offices to demonstrate “In defense of democracy and against media coup-ism,” G1 reports.
In the wake of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s statements accusing the press of acting like a political party, unions, several worker groups, government partisans, social movement activists, and progressive bloggers are planning an “action against media coup-ism” this Thursday, Sept. 23, at the headquarters of the São Paulo Journalists’’ Union, O Globo reports.
Two individuals set on fire the motorcycle of journalist Alberto Caballero Parejo, owner of the community radio station Innovación Estéreo (Innovation Stereo) in Ciéanaga, reported El Informador. Neighbors warned the journalist and helped him to put out the fire.
The dispute between the Clarín Group, Argentina's largest media conglomerate, and the federal government over Papel Prensa, the largest newsprint factory in the country, has intensified in recent days, with complaints, death threats, and accusations of human rights violations during the dictatorship (1976-1983).
Fernando Collor de Mello, a former president and current senator, threatened Hugo Marques, a reporter for IstoÉ magazine, for publishing an article about efforts to invalidate his candidacy for governor of Alagoas state, O Globo reports.
Vânia Costa, a journalist for the newspaper O Mato Grosso in the central-western state of the same name, reported suffering harassment after she tried to investigate alleged misuse of federal funds in the city of Sinop, Folha Online reports.
In the newspaper elPeriodico, columnist Dina Fernandez criticized journalists for still accepting bribes, and chastised the journalists' guild for remaining silent when it comes to corruption within the press.