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…
The U.S. government took aggressive measures in 2002 to shield some of its activities from press scrutiny. These steps not only reduced access for U.S. reporters but had a global ripple effect, with autocratic leaders citing U.S. government actions to justify repressive policies.
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,…
Nova York, 13 de setembro de 2002 — O Comitê de Proteção aos Jornalistas vê com preocupacão a situação do jornalista Lúcio Flávio Pinto, que responde a diversas ações criminais por suas reportagens sobre o Estado do Pará. Lúcio Flávio é um respeitado jornalista independente de Belém do Pará. Ele escreve a coluna “Carta da…
New York, September 13, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about Brazilian journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto, who faces several criminal and civil lawsuits because of his reporting from the Amazon rain forest in Brazil’s northern state of Pará. Lúcio Flávio, as he is known in Brazil, is a well-respected free-lance reporter based in Belém,…
New York, June 11, 2002—A Brazilian judge has granted an injunction banning the country’s media from publishing any information regarding proceedings against another judge. This is the second case of prior censorship in Brazil within two weeks. On May 23, Judge Zélia Maria Antunes Alves, of the São Paulo State Court of Justice, granted an…
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…
New York, May 24, 2002—A Brazilian judge has censored CartaCapital, a weekly magazine based in the city of São Paulo. The magazine said it will fight the decision. According to press reports in Brazil and court documents, copies of which were obtained by CPJ, Judge Marcelo Oliveira da Silva of the 21st Civil Chamber of…