9 July 2003
3RD JOURNALIST KILLED IN A MONTH
A third journalist in Brazil has been killed in less than a month, sparking calls of concern from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
Nicanor Linhares Batista, host of a radio show and owner of a radio station in Brazil's northeastern state of Ceará, was murdered by two unidentified men on 30 June. He was killed around 8 p.m. while recording his daily show "Encontro Político" (Political Encounter), CPJ reports.
According to the daily "Diário do Nordeste," based in Fortaleza, Ceará, gunmen came into the studio, shot Nicanor several times at close range, and fled on a motorcycle. A sound technician who worked for the radio station witnessed the murder. Nicanor was taken to Limoeiro do Norte's Public Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
CPJ is investigating whether the murder was related to Nicanor's work as a journalist.
Nicanor, 42, was the owner of Rádio Vale do Jaguaribe, based in the city of Limoeiro do Norte. The Fortaleza daily "O Povo," citing other radio journalists from the area, reported that the program "Encontro Político," broadcast on weekdays 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., was one of the most popular radio shows in the Jaguaribe Valley, where Limoeiro do Norte is located. According to "O Povo," Nicanor was considered a controversial journalist whose hard-hitting commentaries had angered many local politicians and public officials, CPJ notes.
According to the Brazilian news agency Agência Nordeste, police said that Nicanor's murder may have been a contract killing, and that the journalist had many enemies because of the critical reports that aired on his station. Meanwhile, there are reports that Nicanor had received threats and was about to meet with state government officials on 1 July to discuss his safety.
Nicanor's death follows that of Edgar Ribeiro Pereira de Oliveira, part-owner of a weekly newspaper in the southern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul on 9 June, and Melyssa Martins Correia, a journalist for Brazil's daily newspaper "Oeste Notícias" in the town of Presidente Prudente on 3 June (see: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/50641/).
IAPA's Rapid Response Unit in Brazil has begun an investigation into both killings to determine if they were directly related to the journalists' work.
To find out more about free expression conditions in Brazil, read IFEX members' reports: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/archivereports/131/
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Visit IAPA's Impunity Campaign website and send a letter to the Brazilian government: http://www.impunidad.com/#
RSS