Freedom of Expression
Press Release 103/04
OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION DEPLORES ASSASSINATION OF JOURNALIST IN BRAZIL
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) deplores the assassination of the radio journalist José Carlos Araújo, of Radio Timbaúba FM last Saturday, April 24, in the city of Mata Norte, state of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil.
According to the information received by the Office of the Special Rapporteur, the 37 year-old journalist hosted the police program J. Carlos Araújo Entrevista, in which he denounced criminal activities and had reported on the actions of death squads in the region. Araújo had previously been the victim of threats.
Last Saturday night, two subjects on motorcycles approached the journalist as he was leaving a recording studio near his house and shot him four times. The assassins fled.
According to local newspapers and Brazilian organizations, on April 28 the police detained a person who confessed to having assassinated the journalist because the journalist's denunciations had implicated him in criminal activities. Two other suspects remain at large.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur recalls that the assassination of journalists is the most brutal means of restricting freedom of expression. Principle 9 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the IACHR states that: "The murder, kidnapping, intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications media violate the fundamental rights of individuals and strongly restrict freedom of expression."
The assassination, kidnapping, intimidation or threatening of social communicators have two concrete objectives. On the one hand, they seek to eliminate those journalists that investigate abuses and irregularities in order to curtail those investigations. On the other hand, they seek to be a tool of intimidation directed against all those who engage in investigative journalism.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur urges the Brazilian authorities to continue with the investigations already in progress and to find mechanisms that will effectively protect all social communicators so that they can continue to carry out their valuable work of informing society. In this respect, he recalls the commitment made by the Heads of State and Government at the Third Summit of the Americas , when they stated that the States would ensure "that journalists and opinion leaders are free to investigate and publish without fear of reprisals."
Washington, D.C., April 30, 2004.