Brazil: Armed Thugs Break Equipment and Stop Radio Broadcast

Brazilian radio Diário FM was the target of an attack that resulted in the suspension of its broadcast for more than three hours. The attack happened on August 27. The station belongs to the Diário de MarÀ­lia group, based in the interior of the State of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil.

According to information revealed to the media, the transmitters were destroyed by armed criminals who attacked the security guard during the night.

Before destroying them, the men disconnected a piece of equipment that holds 10 thousand watts of power, which indicates that they were trained for the job, said the radio station's spokespersons.  

Representatives of the station said the attack comes as a reprisal against the editorial line of the media group, which publishes information about embezzlement by previous administrations in the city of Marí­lia.  

The case was reported and is being investigated by the General Investigations Commission.

In 2005, this same group of media outlets was the victim of a fire that destroyed a large part of the facilities of the "Diário de Marí­lia" newspaper and the Dirceu AM and Diário FM radio stations.

In another case involving the media, Filipe Araújo, a photographer for the daily O Estado de S. Paulo, was held captive in a shack, on August 24, threatened and robbed while he was covering a police operation aimed at evicting squatters from the Portelinha favela, located south of São Paulo.

The squatters were resisting the police by committing acts of vandalism. While Araújo was covering the eviction, five hooded and armed men grabbed him and took him into a shack, where they stole his equipment and threatened to shoot him if he tried to leave.

The photographer managed to escape and asked the police for assistance, but he was unable to recover his stolen equipment.