Murder rates in Brazil are increasing impunity

On August 17, 2016, Mauricio Campos Rosa was shot and killed at night in the central state of Minas Gerais. Rosa was found dead in his car with his newspaper ID. Rosa was the owner of the local newspaper “O Grito”. A few days before his death, the newspaper reported that several local elected officials were illegally participating in a garbage collection cooperative. He is the fourth journalist murdered in Brazil this year. Over two months have passed and there have been no reports on the motives or any possible suspects by the civil police

On March 8, 2013, two unidentified men shot, Rodrigo Neto, host of the radio show “Plantão Policial” (Police Shift), in Ipatinga Minas Gerais. Neto was known for aggressively covering police corruption. His reporting was suspected to be the motive for his murderers.

On July 24, 2016, Joao Miranda do Carmo, who ran and edited the news website, SAD Sem Censura. Some men drove to his house in Santo Antonio do Descoberto in Goais, they called his name and shot him seven times. Carmo’s work was known for criticizing politicians and local authorities. He constantly received death threats and his car was set on fire in 2014 as a threat to the news he published.

Brazil ranked 11th in the CPJ impunity index in 2014, but it has now moved up to nine. Corruption and politics are the beats that have led to a majority of these journalists murdered. The most alarming statistic is that the suspected source behind half these killings are government officials.

The reason for government officials covering half of the percentage of suspects is because of their history of ownership in the media. “Between 1987 and 2008, the Donos da Midia (“Media Owners”) project mapped Brazilian media outlets to document their owners and partners across the country. When it culminated in 2008, Brazil had—among radio and TV stations, newspapers and magazines—9,477 media outlets, owned by 19,466 shareholders. Of this total, 271 shareholders (a number that the project flagged for potentially being outdated and inaccurate by then) were politicians,” according to the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. The Constitution says they cannot own “public utility” services. However, parliamentarians can register their affected properties to family members.

Many citizens have been attempting to put an end to this “electronic colonialism” since November 2015, the Federal Prosecutor's Office—with the support of the Fora Coronéis da Mídia (Get Out Media Colonels). Because of this movement politicians have been found to use television and radio licenses as “bargaining chips to obtain political support, influence public opinion in favour of their allies or against their opponents, and receive the backing of parliamentary power to get or renew concessions.”

In Carmo’s case, Douglas Ferreira de Morais, the head of security at city hall was detained and accused of participating in the murder. Morais’s son, Rooney da Silva Morais, was arrested about a month later after the crime occurred. Carmo posting an article of another of Douglas’s son being arrested is the suspected motive of the crime.

Looking back on Neto’s case, Lúcio Lírio Leal, a former police officer was sentenced to twelve years in prison for his involvement in planning Neto’s murder. The man who carried out the murder, Alessandro Neves Augusto, was arrested in 2015. He also charged with the murder of Walgney Assis Carvalho, a freelance crime photographer.

Murder is the most detestable form of censorship against journalism. These crimes undermine the constitutional right to freedom of expression by journalists in Brazil. The rate of solved murders cannot keep up with the killings of journalists happening so often. In the past decade, 15 journalists have been killed with complete impunity. Brazil needs to continue making federal investigation of past and recent murders of journalists a top priority.

Federal task forces need to continue to be used for investigation of these crimes. This is what led to the arrest of Neves Augusto. It took two years to find Neto’s killer. “Journalists in Ipatinga told CPJ that the local press corps had formed the ‘Rodrigo Neto Committee’ to investigate the murder and keep pressure on authorities to solve the case.”

The first step to decreasing this impunity is solving the murders. The next step is finding out who is sending out threats before the murder even happens. Carmo and Neto both received numerous threats. Carmo reported his threats to the police but there was no report of investigation of the letters. “In more than half of the murders of the index, the victims were threatened before they were killed,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Rosa’s murder needs to be a case of the utmost importance for the federal police. Whether it is a criminal group, a politician or an infuriated reader, impunity is rising every day if we don’t know who is responsible.