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Brazilian Media Behaviour Note on Stockwell Shooting

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

The following is a round-up of Brazilian media coverage on Wednesday 27 July of the case of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot by British police at Stockwell underground station in London on Friday 22 July.

Sao Paulo daily FOLHA DE SAO PAULO

At 0800 gmt the website carries both factual and editorial coverage of the case. The story is second in the running order after the latest developments in the major political crisis currently threatening the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva administration.

"JEAN'S BODY LEAVING FOR BRAZIL TODAY": Front-page report detailing arrangements made by the British government to repatriate the victim's body. The Brazilian consul confirms that the paperwork was completed "in record time", a fact the paper contrasts with the pace of the police inquiry into the shooting.

Continuing on the inside pages, the reports says London-based NGO Amnesty International has called for a "exhaustive inquiry" into the shooting, but British police counsellors have told the family that it is unlikely they will be given access to CCTV images of the victim at Stockwell until after the investigation is complete. The victim's four cousins living in London are questioning the police version of events, the paper adds. One of the cousins, Alex, is keen to meet eye witness Mark Whitby. In an interview with Folha yesterday, Whitby said he wanted to tell the Menezes family what he had seen.

"BRAZILIAN HAD VISA FOR SIX MONTH STAY": Report confirming that Jean Charles de Menezes had entered Britain within the last six months, was in the UK legally and did not require a resident's visa.

"TRAGEDY IN LONDON": Lengthy editorial by Liberal Party leader in the Senate and head of the parliamentary committee on illegal migrants, Senator Marcelo Crivella. The senator says Whitby's witness statement "described the cowardice of three armed men who liquidated an unarmed man who, terrified, had tried to run away".

"This tragedy demonstrates the level of madness state violence can reach. British pride has been wounded by the terrorist attacks of 7 July. This becomes a threat to the public when, as we have seen, there is a band of 007-type police, in plain clothes, with a licence to kill, seeking to avenge British honour with blood, innocent or otherwise. It is the same madness that exploded bombs in Iraq without offering any justification for doing so."

Crivella describes Metropolitian Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair's justification of what he calls a shoot first, ask questions later policy as "revolting in its cynicism".

He calls for the "007 assassins" and their boss Ian Blair, "at best, an Inspector Clouseau double", to be brought to justice.

Rio de Janeiro daily JORNAL DO BRASIL

At 0800 gmt today the website carries an opinion piece and cartoon on the shooting, as well as a short factual report on the latest arrests in London in the breaking news section.

"IN LONDON": Cartoon shows two suicide bombers, one with a belt of explosives around his waist asking the other, who is wearing a hat and beard of explosives: "What's this, Ahmed?"

Ahmed replies, "The police announced they will only shoot in the head".

"WHO KILLED JEAN CHARLES DE MENEZES?": Editorial by Fritz Utzeri says Jean was a victim of "the economic and political system that dominates the world today and of which England and Brazil are perfect examples".

Referring to the police decision to shoot to kill the Brazilian, who reportedly vaulted the tube barrier and fled from plainclothes police calling for him to stop, Utzeri says "Perfidious Albion has just declared that, in the war on terror, she will take no prisoners. Not even suspects will be spared. Our own death squads could not do better. Bin-Ladin has won this battle."

However, the commentator goes on to say that Brazil also bears some responsibility for events and should ask itself why Jean was forced to leave his homeland to work abroad. "He is part of a generation of millions of Brazilians who look at their country and see only impossibilities. The impossibility of working, of growing, of hoping for a better future."

"How sad is this story of the migrants from Paradise," Utzeri concludes. "The British police are not the only ones who killed Jean. Brazil itself killed Jean."

Rio de Janeiro daily O GLOBO

At 0800 gmt the website carries one report on its front page and devotes the entire front page of its world news section to coverage of the case.

"JEAN CHARLES' BODY TO ARRIVE IN BRAZIL TOMORROW": Factual write- up on front page.

"BODY OF BRAZILIAN IS RELEASED": More factual reporting on world news page.

"TRIBUTES TO JEAN CHARLES IN LONDON, BRASILIA AND RIO": Factual report with three large photos of Brazilians lighting candles in his memory and holding placards at demonstrations in the three cities.

"MULTICULTURALISM IN CHECK": Report by AFP writer Catherine Fay de Lestrac, contrasting the situation for Muslims living in France with those in the UK in relation to laws on wearing headscarves, for example.

"UNEASE WITH STRANGERS": Report by the BBC's Sean Coughlan describing the growing uneasiness of passengers on the London underground when travelling in the same carriage as people of Asian appearance or wearing Muslim dress and the threat this poses to multiculturalism.

Brazilian Globo TV

GLOBO TV broadcast just one minute of reporting on this story on Wednesday 27 July.

This morning's main news bulletin at 1015 gmt (0715 local time) covered the repatriation of the victim's body to Brazil today and the arrests made by the British police in the early hours of this morning.

The story has slipped way down the TV news agenda, appearing at 1052 gmt after domestic news on the political crisis and a lengthy feature on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Source: BBC Monitoring Americas

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