This week we have the second part on Press Freedom Day. This very important human right is essential to the truth, democracy, justice, and development. We all have the duty to defend those who work to bring us the truth about what is happening, mainly those who try to bring us about dangerous issues related to justice. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://cpj.org/blog/2016/02/amid-rising-violence-in-brazil-convictions-in-jour.php#more. The second was published at https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-16553-cpjs-list-deadliest-countries-journalists-2015-includes-brazil-mexico-colombia. The third was published at in May 2015 https://cpj.org/2015/05/brazilian-blogger-found-decapitated-in-minas-gerai.php. The fourth was published at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32822331
Justice delayed is justice denied, goes the legal maxim, and that has all too often been the case in Latin America. But the perseverance of lawyers and prosecutors in Brazil has resulted in a number of recent convictions in cases many thought had been buried or forgotten. The murders of José Ornelas de Lemos, director of the daily Hora H were arrested in november. Last year, judges in MG state convicted Alessandro Neves for the murders of a journalist and a photographer who worked together covering cases in which police were suspected of involvement in murders in the town of Coronel Fabriciano. And the killer of political journalist Décio Sá was sentenced to 25 years in prison in Maranhão. The resolution of those and other cases long after they happened is good news for a region with a bleak record on impunity. Brazil ranks eleventh on CPJ's impunity index which tracks countries where jornalists are murdered and their killers go free. While other Latin America nations have made little progress in fighting impunity, the convictions in Brazil are cause for optimism, legal experts, human rights officials, and journalism advocates say. "The special rapporteur's office has noted advances in several cases involving the assassination of journalists that had gone unpunished in Brazil during recent years," The perseverance of police and public prosecutors reflects a growing confidence in Brazil's legal institutions. The country is in the midst of a high-level war on impunity as judges and prosecutors target big names suspected of involvement in a slew of corruption scandals. The mobilization of a federal task force in MG was crucial in helping convict Alessandro Neves. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murdering the journalist Rodrigo Neto and the photographer Walney de Carvalho. The Federation of Journalists in Brazil wants the murder of journalists to be classified as a federal crime so that cases are investigated by federal forces.
Deadly violence against journalists in Latin America ( LA ) has continued to grow this year, with four countries from the region making the Committee to Protect Journalists' ( CPJ ) list of deadliest countries for journalists in 2015. Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala were the deadliest countries in LA for journalists in 2015, according the organization's report. Between them, CPJ confirmed that the murders of 12 journalists were related to their work. Six of the cases were in Brazil. Journalists killed in LA this year reported on dangerous topics including organized crime or corruption and some had received threats to their lives prior to their deaths. With six deaths confirmed by the organization to be related to journalists' work, Brazil was the third deadliest country in 2015. The country "registered its highest number of killings since CPJ began keeping detailed records in 1992," according to an organization press release. Last year, 30-year-old blogger Ítalo Diniz Barros was killed in Maranhão in November. Just three days earlier, radio journalist Israel Gonçalves Dias was killed in Pernanbuco. Earlier in the year, radio journalist Gleydson Carvalho was shot while on air at radio Liberdade FM in Camocim, Ceará in August. Within one week in May, the bodies of two murdered journalists were found in the eastern part of the country. In May, the decapitated body of the blogger Evany Metzker was found in MG state. Days later, police discovered the tortured body of radio journalist Djalma da Conceição in Bahia. In a region that has been dangerous for journalists in recent years, Paraguayan radio journalist Gerardo Servian was killed in Ponta Porã, MS, on the Brazil-Paraguay border in March.
Brazilian authorities must fully investigate the murder of a Brazilian blogger, identify the motive, and bring the killers to justice, The CPJ said today. The body of Evany Metzker was found on Monday in the southeastern state of MG. "We condemn the brutal murder of Evany and urge authorities to leave no stone unturned in investigating this crime and all possible motives," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's Americas coordinator. " The ability of local journalists to report the news is clearly being undermined by deadly violence against the Brazilian press." Police, responding to an anonymous phone call, found Metzker's body outside the town of Padre Paraíso, in the northeast of MG state. His head had been cut off. He was naked and his hands were tied behind his back. Metzker, 67, wrote a blog called Coruja do Vale, which focused on general political news and official wrongdoing in the impoverished north and eastern parts of MG. The reported news such as arrests made at police roadblocks, parking violations by local authorities, and community interest stories, according to CPJ's review of its content. The journalist's wife, Hilma Borges, told CPJ that they lived in the town of Medina, but that Metzker had traveled to Padre Paraíso about three months ago to do some investigative work. "He was doing investigative journalism in a region that is very dangerous," Hilma told CPJ. "There are lots of murders here. I think that the motive, given the barbarity of his murder, was because he hit on something. He investigated mayors, politicians, cargo robberies, prostitution," she said. According to local news reports, Metzker had been investigating a child prostitution ring that was active in the area. The MG Union of Professional Journalists issued a statement calling for the murder to be rigorously investigated and the perpetrators held to account. Independent bloggers in provincial capitals and towns who cover crime and corruption are particularly at risk in Brazil, according to CPJ research, News bloggers have grown influential in the country, thus becoming the newest target of those who want to muzzle the press, CPJ research shows. Brazil has seen a sharp increase in lethal anti-press violence in recent years, according to CPJ research. At least 14 journalists have been killed in direct retaliation for their work since 2011, Brazil's poor record of impunity adds to the violence and intimidation.
The Brazilian government has sent investigators to the state of MG to look into the murder of journalist Evany Metzker. His body was found in a rural area near the town of Padre Paraíso, five days after went missing. He had been tortured and decapitated. Colleagues said Metzker, 67, had been investigating drug trafficking and child abuse in the Jequitinhonha Valley. Local journalists said they were afraid to work in the region. "There is a climate of terror in the region that intimidates reporters from doing their jobs," said the president of the MG journalists Union, Kerison Lopes. He told Spanish news agency Efe that "everything led them to believe that Metzker was killed because he was reporting on robbery, drug trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. He said the brutality of the murder had thrown local journalists in the region into panic. However, a local police officer said they were not ruling out the murder could have been "a crime of passion".
The Brazilian government has sent investigators to the state of MG to look into the murder of journalist Evany Metzker. His body was found in a rural area near the town of Padre Paraíso, five days after went missing. He had been tortured and decapitated. Colleagues said Metzker, 67, had been investigating drug trafficking and child abuse in the Jequitinhonha Valley. Local journalists said they were afraid to work in the region. "There is a climate of terror in the region that intimidates reporters from doing their jobs," said the president of the MG journalists Union, Kerison Lopes. He told Spanish news agency Efe that "everything led them to believe that Metzker was killed because he was reporting on robbery, drug trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. He said the brutality of the murder had thrown local journalists in the region into panic. However, a local police officer said they were not ruling out the murder could have been "a crime of passion".
