Radio journalist critical of government killed during live broadcast in Brazil

A well-known radio journalist in Brazil who repeatedly denounced political corruption was gunned down Thursday in the middle of one of his ...

A well-known radio journalist in Brazil who repeatedly denounced political corruption was gunned down Thursday in the middle of one of his broadcasts.

Gleydson Carvalho was a dogged journalist who had received death threats on Facebook.

Carvalho, police said, was in the middle of his broadcast in Camocim, in the state of Ceará, when two men showed up at the building to buy advertising space, according to the show’s technical operator, Ricardo Farias.

The ad inquiry, police say, was a ruse. Once the men were allowed into the building, one of them forced his way into the Carvalho’s booth and ambushed him.

"The guy opened the door and shot three times. It was very quick. I saw the bloody body and asked for help right away," Farias told reporters. “Gleydson had received threats saying they would kill him and he said on the air that he was threatened and he was not afraid… I always told him not to do it.”

Carvalho was a known critic of the local government and usually talked politics on his show at Radio Liberdade FM.

"Today was silenced one of the most important voices of our region, in a tragic and unnecessary manner," the municipality of Camocim said in a statement posted on its website.

Carvalho’s lawyer, Marcos Coelho, said he never imagined something like this could happen in their town. “This is a crime that deserves the most rigorous investigation possible by the authorities,” he said, as quoted by Mirror.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said this is the third journalist killed in Brazil this year in direct relation to their work. At least 16 journalists have been killed for their work since 2011, the group said.

"Violence against the press in Brazil had already reached unacceptable levels. Now we are stunned by the brazen murder of Gleydson Carvalho in the middle of his radio show," said Sara Rafsky, CPJ's Americas research associate. "Authorities must take action to combat a press freedom crisis that is violating the right of all Brazilians to be informed, not to mention ending journalists' lives."