(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 14 June 2002 IAPA press release: IAPA protests murder of Lopes in Brazil, calls for other journalists’ murder cases to be solved MIAMI, Florida (June 14, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed its condemnation of the murder of Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes, called on the authorities of […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 14 June 2002 IAPA press release:
IAPA protests murder of Lopes in Brazil, calls for other journalists’ murder cases to be solved
MIAMI, Florida (June 14, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed its condemnation of the murder of Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes, called on the authorities of the South American country to ensure that “this crime does not go unpunished” and urged that the murderers of a dozen other journalists in the interior of the country also be brought to justice.
The death of Lopes, 51, a reporter for the Brazilian television network TV Globo, was officially confirmed by police in Rio de Janeiro on June 9, but there remains uncertainty as to the identity of the victim’s body. Lopes had last been seen on Sunday, June 2 in the low-income neighborhood of Cruceiro on the northern outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. It is believed his disappearance is linked to the reports he wrote on criminal gangs involved in sex and drug trafficking.
IAPA President Robert J. Cox condemned the incident and publicly called on the Brazilian authorities to make every effort to ensure that the crime “does not go unpunished.” Cox, assistant editor of The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, said the attention that the Lopes case had attracted would serve to raise awareness of the other murders of journalists that remained unsolved.
IAPA Impunity Committee Chairman Alberto Ibargüen said that the IAPA itself had already investigated 11 cases of murder of journalists in Brazil in recent years, most of which were committed in the interior of the country, “where it would seem that the press is least protected.”
Ibargüen, publisher of The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, recalled that following its Midyear Meeting in March the IAPA had protested to Brazilian federal and state governments over the lack of progress in official investigations into the crimes and called for more concrete action.
Of the 11 cases he mentioned, he said five had been submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), since all legal recourse in Brazil itself had been exhausted and the cases have remained unsolved. These five cases were those of Manoel Leal de Oliveira, Edgar Lopes de Faria, Ronald Santana de Araújo, Zaqueu de Oliveira and Aristeu Guida da Silva.
The IAPA investigations into all 11 cases, the submissions to the IACHR and the protests the IAPA has made to the Brazilian authorities are posted on the Web site www.impunidad.com.
The cases that have been investigated are:
– Mário Coelho de Almeida Jr., general manager, reporter and photographer for A Verdade newspaper, Magé, Río de Janeiro state, murdered on August 16, 2001
– José Wellington Fernández, of Radio Xingo FM, in Canindé de São Francisco, Sergipe, murdered on March 13, 2000
– Manoel Leal de Oliveira, founder of the newspaper A Região, Itabuna, Bahia state, murdered on January 14, 1998
– José Carlos Mesquita, owner of TV Ouro Verde and host of its program “Open Space,” in Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia state, murdered on March 10, 1998
– Edgar Lopes de Faria, commentator for Rádio Capital FM and host of television programs for the network Red Record in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul state, murdered on October 29, 1997
– Ronaldo Santana de Araújo, anchor for Rádio Jornal de Eunopolis, in Eunopolis, Bahia state, murdered on October 9, 1997
– Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva, publisher of Cachoeiras Jornal newspaper in Cachoeiras de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro state, murdered on August 29, 1995
– Maria Nilce dos Santos Magalhães, columnist and editor for Jornal da Cidade newspaper in Vitoria, Espírito Santo state, murdered on July 5, 1989
– Mário Eugênio Rafael de Oliveira, reporter for Correio Braziliense newspaper and host of “Gogo das Sete” program on Rádio Planalto in Brasília, murdered on November 11, 1984
– Aristeu Guida da Silva, owner and editor of Gazeta de São Fidélis newspaper, Rio de Janeiro state, murdered on May 12, 1995
– Zaqueu de Oliveira, owner and editor of La Gazeta de Barroso newspaper in Barroso, Minas Gerais state, murdered on March 21, 1995.
