Prominent Government Critic And Radio Host Assassinated During Live Broadcast.

A Radio host who was openly critical of his nation’s government has been assassinated during a live broadcast.Gleydson Carvalho, from the north Brazilian state of Ceará, was an outspoken personality who frequently railed against official corruption on Rádio Liberdade FM.


During his most recent show on Thursday afternoon, he was killed in his chair by two gunmen who forced their way into the radio station.

According to local media, the assassins overpowered a receptionist before forcing their way into Carvalho’s recording studio, where they shot him three times, once in the head and twice in the chest. He reportedly died a short while after, en route to hospital.

Mr Carvalho was playing music at the time of the shooting.

“Today they silenced one of the most important voices of our region, in a tragic and unnecessary way,” said a statement posted online by the city of Camocim, from where Mr Carvalho broadcast his show. 


The host had previously received death threats on his Facebook page and had told friends of receiving death threats while at work. He was highly critical of the local government and commonly spoke of political corruption during his show.

His murder is the third killing of a Brazilian journalist this year, and the 16th assassination of a reporter since 2011, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).


Human Rights Watch has called on the Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the murder amid a growing level of impunity for killers of journalists.

“Attacks against journalists for their work threaten freedom of expression and the very fabric of democracy,” said Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil’s director at Human Rights Watch. “It is crucial for the authorities to ensure full accountability for the killing of Carvalho and other journalists to guarantee that reporters in Brazil can work without fearing for their lives.”


Her sentiment was echoed by the Sara Rafsky, CPJ’s Americas research associate. “Violence against the press in Brazil had already reached unacceptable levels,” she said. “Now we are stunned by the brazen murder of Gleydson Carvalho in the middle of his radio show.”