Brazil

9 January 2009

Another of journalist's convicted murderers gets partial release in Brazil

Press freedom groups have expressed shock at the December 30, 2008 announcement that Cláudio Orlando "O Ratinho" do Nascimento, like Claudino "Xuxa" dos Santos Coelho before him, has been granted a partial release for "good behaviour." The two men, known members of a Rio de Janeiro gang, were sentenced in 2005 to 23 years and six months in prison for the June 2002 murder of TV Globo reporter Tim...

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17 December 2008

Four new arrests made in investigation into abduction and torture of Brazilian journalists

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has wlcomed the progress being made in the investigation into the abduction and torture of two journalists employed by Brazilian newspaper, O Dia, and their driver in the Rio de Janeiro favela of Batan on May 14. Three military police officers wanted in connection with the case—Fabio Gonçalves Soares (also known as 'Fabinho Catiri'), Marcos Antonio Alves da Silva...

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13 December 2008

Jury trial for ex-mayor accused of ordering Brazliian journalist's murder in 2003

One of Brazil's highest federal courts has ruled that a former mayor in the northeastern state of Ceará should be tried before an ordinary court for the 2003 murder of Nicanor Linhares Batista, the owner of Radio Vale do Jaguaribe, a radio station based in the town. The Superior Tribunal of Justice (STJ) passed the order against Maria Arivan de Holanda Lucena, the former mayor of Limoeiro do Norte...

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30 November 2008

IAPA calls for Brazilian journalist's murderer to be brought to justice

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has urged newspaper readers throughout the Americas to sign an open letter to Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calling on him to have light shed on the death of television programme host José Carlos Mesquita on March 10, 1998 in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia, Brazil. Mesquita had exposed drug trafficking and misuse of funds intended for the...

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20 November 2008

Family of murdered Brazilian journalist harassed, possibly for participation in murder probe

The family of journalist Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho are being harassed a year and a half after he was murdered in Porto Ferreira, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. There are concerns that this is linked to their participation in the investigation of the crime perpetrated on him. After Barbon was murdered on May 5, their house was attacked and his widow, Kátia Rosa Camargo, received several silent...

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18 November 2008

Brazilian newspaper's circulation reduced after publishing articles criticising mayor

The Jornal Atual newspaper, based in the inland town of Itaguaí in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, has suffered a significant reduction in its distribution. According to the newspaper's owner, Marcelo Godinho, 15 street newsstand vendors have refused since November 6 to put the newspaper out for sale to their customers. All of the newsstands in question belong to the same owner, known as "Rodolfo"...

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15 July 2008

Brazil: Court revokes imposition of fines on for pre-election period interview with candidate

Fourteen media outlets have been fined in 2008 by the electoral courts for publishing interviews with those seeking office in the upcoming municipal elections, scheduled for October, or in some cases, even just their photographs. Electoral judges deemed that the media outlets and the politicians were carrying out election advertising before July 6, the official starting date of the campaign...

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19 June 2008

Brazil: Prime suspect in journalists' torture case surrenders to police

Odnei Fernando da Silva, the civilian police inspector who is accused of heading the militia that kidnapped and tortured two O Dia journalists and their driver in Rio de Janeiro's Batan favela on May 14, surrendered to the authorities on June 16. Also known as "01", "Dinei" and "Águia", Da Silva went with his lawyer to the headquarters of the Department for Repression of Criminal Actions and...

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19 June 2008

Brazil: Conviction for “electoral propaganda” condemned as “absurd”

The conviction for “electoral propaganda” against daily A Folha de São Paulo and magazine Veja after they published interviews with a prospective candidate to municipal elections in São Paulo in southeast Brazil has been described as "absurd". Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said Thursday that the verdict placed an unacceptable limit on press freedom and that reform of the current...

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19 May 2008

Shooting attack on TV reporter in São Paulo suburb, police suspected

Two masked men fired at reporter Edson Ferraz of TV Diário (a station affiliated to the privately-owned Rede Globo network) on May 15 in Mogi das Cruzes, an outlying suburb of São Paulo in Brazil. Ferraz escaped unhurt. The 25-year-old journalist had been covering a case of corruption and money-laundering involving 19 local policemen and had been warned of possible reprisals. “In some respects...

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