(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Mário Covas, RSF is “protesting the assassination attempt on the life of Nelson Gonçalves of the daily ‘O Jornal da Cidade de Bauru’ (300 km north-west of São Paulo).” In the letter, Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, “considers the assassination attempt on the journalist to be a serious violation […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Mário Covas, RSF is “protesting the
assassination attempt on the life of Nelson Gonçalves of the daily ‘O Jornal
da Cidade de Bauru’ (300 km north-west of São Paulo).” In the letter, Robert
Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, “considers the assassination
attempt on the journalist to be a serious violation of press freedom.” He
urges the Brazilian leader “to launch a rigorous inquiry which will lead to
the identification and trial of those responsible for this act.”
On 16 August 1999, two men on motorcycles fired four times in the direction
of Gonçalves as he was returning home. The attackers fled when a neighbour
came to the journalist’s assistance. Gonçalves escaped the attack unharmed.
The journalist views the incident as a revenge attack. The assassination
attempt may be linked to revelations made by the journalist, who was one of
the first to denounce the corruption scandals surrounding the city’s mayor,
Antonio Izzo Filho, who is currently jailed. Last March, a man arrested by
police had admitted that two of the mayor’s former aides had offered to pay
him to shoot the journalist in the legs, in an effort to intimidate him.
Previously, seemingly in the context of the same matter, there had been
attacks on the homes of municipal counsellors who had opposed the mayor.
RSF notes that at least six journalists have been killed in Brazil since
1995 after having made accusations against local police or political
personalities. Though suspects were arrested in some of these cases, none of
the presumed killers have been sentenced to date.
