(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced dismay at the news that Nadja Haddad, of radio Band Rio, sustained a bullet wound to the chest during a shootout between military police and drug traffickers on 29 August 2005 in Rio de Janeiro, capping a month of attacks and abuse of authority against the press in Brazil. “Given […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced dismay at the news that Nadja Haddad, of radio Band Rio, sustained a bullet wound to the chest during a shootout between military police and drug traffickers on 29 August 2005 in Rio de Janeiro, capping a month of attacks and abuse of authority against the press in Brazil.
“Given the violence and acts of intimidation, often involving officials of different kinds, press freedom is still fragile in Brazil,” the organisation said. “We wish Nadja Haddad a speedy recovery and we hope a thorough investigation will be carried out to determine who fired the shots that could have killed her. We also call on the federal government and state governors to be tougher with officials who try to obstruct journalists in their work.”
The shoot-out in which Haddad was injured began in the late afternoon of 29 August, when a military police patrol came under fire from a gang of drug traffickers who had occupied the higher ground in Rio’s Botafogo district. Members of the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) were summoned and launched an assault on the traffickers.
As she arrived on the scene in a Band Rio vehicle, a shot struck the 24-year-old Haddad in the chest, puncturing a lung. She was rushed to Miguel Couto hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery during the night.
“Her condition is improving. She is recovering well,” Band Rio editor-in-chief Alessandra Martins said.
Meanwhile, RSF registered several other cases of attacks and intimidation against journalists during August. These included three in the central state of Tocantins alone, which were reported by the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ).
Salomão Aguiar of TV Palmas was attacked during the first week of August by a local judicial official as he was covering a noise control operation by police in the state capital of Palmas. The official, who did not want his car filmed, punched Aguiar in the face, bruising him.
On 11 August, police tried to stop television crews and journalists from TV Palmas, TV Anhanguera and the “Jornal do Tocantins” newspaper from covering a news conference at the state prosecutor’s office in Palmas at which prosecutors brought forth two police officers accused of extortion.
On 17 August, local parliamentarian Fábio Martins assaulted Edson Rodrigues, editor of the weekly “Paralelo 13”, during a meeting of the Tocantins regional council.
Elsewhere in Brazil, Amélia Denardin, chief of staff for the mayor of Altamira (in the northern state of Pará), assaulted Odair Oliveira of the television station SBT during the Pará Indigenous Games on 14 August and tried to stop him from filming, according to SBT executives, who later filed a complaint.
Finally, on 10 August, photographer Wladimir de Souza of the “Diário de São Paulo” newspaper was attacked by a police officer, Antonio Honório, while filming the detention of a drug trafficker at the headquarters of the narcotics police in São Paulo. Honório grabbed De Souza, threw him against a wall and broke his camera (see IFEX alert of 31 August 2005).
