April 7, 2022

11:04

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The state of Pará concentrated most of the cases of violence against journalists in the Amazon in 2021, with eight records, according to the report “Violence against journalists and press freedom in Brazil | Report 2021”, of the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj). Also according to the document, in Pará, the only murder of a journalist in the period was registered.

The report is produced annually based on data collected by the federation itself and by the journalist unions in the country. The data is collected through denunciations made to Fenaj or one of the unions, by the victims of violence themselves or by other journalists, and by the compilation of news published by the various media outlets.

In the report, Amazonas is listed as the second most violent state in the North Region for these professionals in 2021, with five episodes. Maranhão and Mato Grosso registered two cases, and Acre, Roraima and Tocantins had one case each.

Read also: According to Abraji, 78 episodes of aggression against women journalists were registered in 2021

Murder

On September 6, 2021, in Almeirim, Pará, journalist Eranildo Ribeiro da Cruz, popularly known as “Chocolate”, was murdered. The 54-year-old professional was found in his home, tied up, naked, with signs of torture and a head wound. According to the report, he was investigating possible fraud in the municipal election and also denounced the death of a baby due to alleged negligence on the part of the municipal government.

The police identified the case as a robbery, but the man who was arrested and confessed that he killed the journalist to rob him pointed to another person involved in the murder, who may have had another motive for the crime.

Censorship

Fenaj also pointed out that in 2021, the cases of “censorship” surpassed those of “discrediting” the press. There were 140 occurrences of censorship, most of them (138), committed by directors of the Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), a federal public company.

Censorship represented 32.56% of the total number of cases, while discrediting the press represented 30.46% (131 occurrences in total). There was an increase in censorship cases, (140 episodes in 2021, against 85, in 2020).

Bolsonaro

Finally, the document points out that President Jair Bolsonaro remains the main aggressor of journalists. “The continuity of press freedom violations in Brazil is clearly associated with the rise of Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency of the Republic,” the report quotes.

“President Jair Bolsonaro, since assuming the Presidency of the Republic on January 1, 2019, has become the main perpetrator of attacks on media outlets and journalists. In 2021, repeating the same position occupied in the previous two years, he was directly responsible for 147 occurrences (34.19% of the total), most of them, attempts to discredit the press (129), but also for 18 cases of direct assaults on journalists,” it concluded.

Check out the full report: