Bolsonaro's residence boycotted by media outlets due to attacks on journalists

Brazil’s four largest news media outlets reportedly said that they have withdrawn their reporters from coverage of President Jair Bolsonaro’s residence. Due to the lack of security to protect the reporters from heckling and abuse by the supporters of the Brazilian President, the owners of the media houses said that they had to suspend coverage for now. 

According to an international media outlet, in recent days, Bolsonaro’s supporters at the gate of the Alvorada Palace have turned on the reporters with angry verbal attacks. Earlier this week, approximately 60 supporters even heckled the reporters loudly, with shouts of ‘liars’, and ‘communists’. The attacks on the journalists even intensified as Bolsonaro’s political situation deteriorated under criticism of mishandling the deadly coronavirus crisis. 

While the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak killed over 20,000 Brazilians and paralysed the economy, Bolsonaro is also under investigation for allegedly interfering in law enforcement. Meanwhile, his supporters believe that country’s media has a part in the plot to oust him. 

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Media demands guarantee to ensure security 

With escalating harassment from Bolsonaro’s supporters, Organizações Globo, owner of the country’s largest network, TV Globo, reportedly said that he along with TV Bandeirantes decided to suspend coverage for now at the Alvorada Palace. Several large-circulation dailies, including Folha de S.Paulo and Estado de S.Paulo, also said that it would resume coverage only when there were guarantees given to ensure the security of the journalists. 

As earlier this month, several angry demonstrators at a pro-Bolsonaro rally in Brasilia reportedly knocked a photographer off his ladder and kicked and punched him on the ground, Globo said that ‘aggression’ has been increasing. In a statement to Bolsonaro’s national security, Globo wrote that the reporters of the media channel would no longer go to the residence because it was ‘not safe’. Augusto Heleno, the security adviser, however, said that the authorities regularly studies the situation and have also taken ‘sufficient measure to guarantee adequate security’. 

(Image credit: AP) 

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