In 2022, Brazil was once again the scene of the murder of journalists and communication professionals in general. After a year without recording homicides related to the exercise of the profession, the country recorded, last year, at least two brutal crimes, in addition to a third occurrence still being investigated in Ceará. One of the cases cited in the annual report on violations of freedom of expression, presented today (10) by the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (Abert) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), was the murder of British journalist Dom Philips, killed while traveling through the Amazon region, accompanied by indigenist Bruno Araújo, who died in the same attack. UNESCO representative in Brazil, Marlova Noleto, talks about violations of freedom of expression. Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil The two were in the region to gather information about the advance of gold mining and the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The murder of the British journalist and the indigenist, as they traveled along the Amazon River to an indigenous community in the Javari Valley, had international repercussions, reported in the main press vehicles in the world. Four months earlier, in February, the owner of the Pirambu News website, Givanildo Oliveira da Silva, was shot dead near his home in Fortaleza (CE). Gigi, as the communicator was known, was hit by several shots shortly after reporting the arrest of a suspect in a double homicide. Abert awaits the completion of investigations into the murder of journalist and businessman Luiz Carlos Gomes, which took place in August last year, in Rio de Janeiro. Owner of Jornal Tempo News, from Italva, in the northwest of Rio de Janeiro, Gomes was driving his car when two men approached on a motorcycle and fired shots. The case was not accounted for in the Abert report, because the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro has not yet confirmed that it is a crime related to the exercise of journalism. In more than a decade of monitoring violations of freedom of expression and aggression against communicators, Abert only failed to record cases of homicide in 2019 and 2021. Assaults Abert’s report records 137 cases of non-lethal violence against 212 professionals and media communication – which means that, in 2022, in Brazil, every two days, the press suffered some kind of attack. Unlike 2021, when offenses led the records, this time, physical assaults were at the top of the list of violations of journalistic work. There were 47 cases against 34 in the previous year, a significant increase of 38.24%. The number of victims also rose from 61 to 74, an increase of 21.31%. Almost 64% of cases of physical aggression occurred in the Southeast and South regions. Considering the total number of cases classified as non-lethal violence, the number of complaints was 5.5% lower than in 2021, with 7.83% fewer victims. In addition to the aforementioned occurrences of physical aggression, the complaints include offenses, intimidation, threats, attacks/vandalism, sexual harassment, insults, attacks, censorship, kidnapping and robbery/theft. For Abert, there is no reason to celebrate, as the various cases, in particular those of Dom Philips and Gigi and the increase in physical aggression, confirm that there is, in the country, a “toxic environment for journalistic activity”. Verbal attacks According to the report, politicians and public authorities are, in the country, the main authors of verbal attacks and offenses against journalists and communication professionals in general. Disgusted with the dissemination of information that discredits them, many not only react by propagating hate speech or messages that aim to discredit the work of the press, but also resort to violence against those who disclose facts of public interest that contradict them. And when they don’t act violently themselves, they incite their constituents and/or supporters to do so. The report points to a higher incidence of various types of non-lethal aggression with a political bias. “The attacks in several Brazilian cities occurred, for the most part, in the days following the second round of the presidential election, during the coverage of the protests against the result of the election, in defense of a military coup, and during the demobilization of camps in front of the Army barracks.” For Abert, the behavior is seen worldwide as a threat to democracy, which is weakened by attacks on freedom of the press and expression. The president of Abert, Flávio Lara Resende, at the launch of the Report on Violations of Freedom of Expression 2022. Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil “Maintaining a free, independent and plural media is essential for the development and preservation of democracy. The task of presenting a critical view on facts of interest to society, with the due checking, it continues to be the antidote to any threat to the work of the press”, said the president of Abert, Flávio Lara Resende, in the introduction to the report, the full text of which is available on the entity’s website. Sexual Harassment The authors of the report point out, in the document, that, like homicides, cases of sexual harassment have reappeared on the map of violence. At least four cases of harassment practiced against female journalists in the exercise of their functions were computed. The victims were mostly reporters and TV presenters. In 75% of the cases, the professionals covered sports in the Southeast Region. In addition to kisses without consent, anonymous messages and videos of a sexual nature were sent to the communicators In September, a fan kissed the ESPN reporter, Jéssica Dias, while she was broadcasting live, moments before the start of a match for the semifinal of the Libertadores, at Maracanã (RJ). The team that accompanied Jessica managed to hold the harasser, who was arrested after providing clarifications to the police. The following month, an internet user used the social networks of TV Globo presenter Bárbara Coelho to send her videos in which he appeared masturbating with pictures of her. In December, it was the turn of TV Bandeirantes presenter, Livia Nepomuceno, to be harassed by a viewer who used social media to send her sexual messages.
Agência Brasil
Folha Nobre - Desde 2013 - ©