17 results arranged by date
Although Brazilian media outlets generally operate in a free environment, they have increasingly been targeted with defamation lawsuits that seek to silence them. Judicial interference and censorship, under the guise of protecting privacy and honor, continues unabated.
Economic and political turmoil throughout Latin America in 2002 had profound implications for the region’s press. Sharp decreases in advertising revenue bankrupted many media outlets, while the failure to consolidate democratic reforms left the media vulnerable to legal and physical assault. Five journalists were killed in Latin America in 2002 for their work.
Workers Party (PT) candidate and former labor leader Luiz Inácio da Silva, known as Lula, won presidential elections in October, defeating the ruling coalition’s candidate by a wide margin and becoming Brazil’s first president not to come from the country’s political and economic elite. In previous elections, the country’s leading newspapers and television networks opposed…
New York, October 1, 2002—Brazilian journalist Domingos Sávio Brandão Lima Júnior was murdered yesterday afternoon. Brandão was the owner, publisher, and a columnist of the daily Folha do Estado, which is based in the city of Cuiabá, in the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Brandão, 40, was shot at least 5 times by two…
New York, September 20, 2002—Brazilian police yesterday captured a local drug trafficker who was the leading suspect in the disappearance and murder of prominent journalist Tim Lopes. Elias Pereira da Silva, also known as Elias the Madman, was apprehended in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, or shantytowns, after a two-day search. In early August,…
New York, June 5, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the June 2 disappearance of Tim Lopes, an investigative reporter with TV Globo in Brazil. According to news reports, he was last seen on assignment in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, at an impoverished community, known as a favela. On June…