Radio Journalist Fatally Shot in Brazil

According to local media, the assassins overpowered a receptionist before forcing their way into Carvalho’s recording studio, where they shot him three times, once in the head and twice in the chest. The men had pretended to be advertisers in order to gain access to the building, the newspaper added. But instead the men forced their way into Carvalho’s radio booth, killing him during the live broadcast.

In March, a Paraguayan radio journalist, Gerardo Ceferino Servían Coronel, was shot dead in the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã, on the border with Paraguay.

“They came to the station’s facility and said that they had to make an announcement”, said Police Chief Herbert Silva about the suspect. He reportedly died a short while after, en route to hospital.

“He spoke to me constantly about the threats but said he wasn’t afraid”, Santos told the Mirror.”The most serious threats he received were to do with politics”.

“Violence against the press in Brazil had already reached unacceptable levels”. Three other journalists have been killed this year in direct retaliation for their work, including two who were killed and tortured in a one-week period in May.

Gleydson Carvalho, a journalist in the town of Camocim, in the northeastern state of Ceara, was shot five times Thursday at point blank range, according to authorities, who said the gunman fled the scene on a motor bike driven by an accomplice. “Authorities must take action to combat a press freedom crisis that is violating the right of all Brazilians to be informed, not to mention ending journalists’ lives”.