The press in Brazil: a study on the killing of journalists during the dictatorship and the democratic period

Abstract

This article presents data from a research on deaths of journalists in two historical periods in Brazil: the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), and the New Republic (until the present day). Murder cases were analyzed, constituting a research corpus with 65 journalists, 24 of them at the time of the dictatorship and 41 in the New Republic, showing how journalists suffered persecution and still suffer today in the country, with Brazil being ranked as the 4th most of Latin America for the performance of the function, according to the organization Reporters Without Borders. The methodology used was bibliographic and documentary research. The data were collected and organized into categories. The collection was carried out in the journalistic class institutions and websites, from March 2018 to December 2019. The cut made from the survey data brings stories from eight journalists. Four of them were killed during the dictatorship, two of them linked to the Central Committee of the PCB, and the only two women in the sample. In the democratic period, there are four dead professionals who worked for major media outlets, of great reach in the state or nationally. In the dictatorship, journalists died by the hand of the State, now they die due to its omission as cases of impunity, lack of investigation of the cases, lack of security in the exercise of the profession, becoming one of the most dangerous professional activities.

Keywords: Journalists; Military dictatorship; New Republic; Press in Brazil.