The Attacks on the Cartoonists

[Judi Lynn]

Authoritarian figures target the press and refuse criticism of any kind

Jun.25.2020 2:54PM

"I would like to report the disappearance, on the Folha website, of the June 8 cartoon by João Montanaro. The gallery jumps from the 7th to the 9th. Was it a threat from the government or pressure from an angry person?", asked a reader.

There was no disappearance. The editor responsible for the cartoon informed me that, due to a technical error, corrected quickly, the cartoon was not in the place where it should have been. However, given what happened in the last few days, the reader's preoccupation is not unreasonable.

In the first half of June, some of the country's most talented cartoonists came under judicial pressure.
Governor Jair Bolsonaro asked to open an investigation into the cartoonist Renato Aroeira, and also requested that journalist Ricardo Noblat, a columnist for Veja magazine, be investigated for publishing Aroeira's material on social media.

The illustration shows the president painting the ends of the red cross, an emblem of humanitarian assistance, with black ink, forming the swastika. Aroeira drew it after Bolsonaro asked his followers to film the hospitals' interior to check if the emergency beds were occupied.

More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/ombudsman/2020/06/the-attacks-on-the-cartoonists.shtml