14 Feb 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Brazilian newspaper editor Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues was shot dead on Sunday night, making him the second Brazilian journalist killed in less than a week and the third in 2012. The journalist, who was known as Paulo Rocaro, was driving home at night in Ponta Porá, a city near the country’s border with Paraguay, when two men on a motorcycle shot him at least five times. Cardoso was the editor of the local daily Jornal Da Praça and news website Mercosul News, and frequently wrote about local politics.
13 Feb 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Brazilian political journalist Mário Randolfo Marques Lopes and his girlfriend were kidnapped and shot dead in the early hours of 9 February in Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro state. Known for being critical of local authorities on his website, Lopes had faced more than one attempt on his life. He was reportedly shot five times in the head when a gunman burst into the website’s newsroom around four months ago, and survived being shot three times at his home last July.
07 Feb 12 | Index Index, minipost
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has been denied permission to leave the island to visit Brazil. Last month, Sanchez formally appealed to the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to enter the country so that she could attend the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba and Honduras in which she features. The blogger tweeted that this was the 19th time she has been denied the right to enter and leave the country. Migration rules that require Cubans to receive government permission to travel have prevented Sánchez from leaving the country since 2004.
06 Jan 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has appealed to Brazil’s president to help her leave the Caribbean island. A strong critic of the country’s Communist regime, Sánchez has been accused by authorities of conducting a “cyberwar” against the government. Sánchez’s video appeal to Dilma Rousseff follows her invitation to Brazil to attend the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba and Honduras in which she features. The blogger said she did not expect to be able to leave Cuba without “high-level intervention”. Migration rules that require Cubans to receive government permission to travel have prevented Sánchez from leaving the country since 2004.
