Brazilian journalist assaulted and threatened over political coverage
Brazilian journalist assaulted and threatened over political coverage
November 18, 2020 4:32 PM EST
Journalist José Airton Alves Júnior was recently attacked after reporting on local political figures in Itarema, Brazil. (Photo: José Airton Alves Júnior)
At about 2:30 p.m. on October 21, 2020, two men entered the home of journalist José Airton Alves Júnior in the town of Itarema, in Brazil’s northeast Ceará state, punched and kicked him several times, and threatened him, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.
Alves Júnior told CPJ he was at home with his wife and three daughters when the two men entered the house and found him in his bedroom.
“They punched and kicked me. They tried to drag me out of the house. Then my wife tried to stop them, and they pushed her. One of my daughters went out into the street screaming and the neighbors came by to see what was going on,” he told CPJ, saying that the men fled after the neighbors arrived.
Alves Júnior has covered local politics and general news at a variety of radio broadcasters since 1992, most recently at local station Radio Liberdade, which he left in June, he told CPJ. He runs the online news portal “Portal Santana / Itarema,” which covers the same issues, and is now the main outlet for his reporting, he said.
Alves Júnior told CPJ that he could identify the two men who assaulted him: José Edson Rios Filho, the husband of a local official, and Dion Veras, an acquaintance of the official’s family.
More;
https://cpj.org/2020/11/brazilian-journalist-assaulted-and-threatened-over-political-coverage/