Brazilian journalist is assaulted, threatened after alleged public funds embezzlement exposé

São Paulo, July 27, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the reported assault and threatsagainst Brazilian journalist Chico Melo, director of independent media group Integração, at Cruzeiro do Sul, in the northern state of Acre, and calls on authorities to swiftly and comprehensively investigate the attack and bring those responsible to account.

Melo, 54, was punched, kicked and wounded in the head by four armed individuals after they broke into his bedroom around 2:30 a.m. on July 22. “They kept asking me, ‘Are you the guy from the radio who talks about politics?’ When I said yes, they replied that I knew why they were there,” said Melo, whose media group covers public interest matters on TV, radio, and a news portal. Before the assailants left, they asked for Melo’s cellphone and a $400 bank transfer. 

“They tortured me for half an hour, and I really thought that I would die,” said Melo in a video posted the day after the attack. 

“The violence suffered by Chico Melo at his own home is a dire attack against press freedom and local journalism in Brazil,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ Latin America program coordinator. “This only happens because the perpetrators feel at ease to do it relying on the impunity in crimes against journalists, which is around 80% globally, according to our data.”

Melo said in a phone interview with CPJ that he suspects the incident had political motive after the publication of a series on alleged embezzlement of public funds intended for an agricultural fair in the Juruá region. He and his partner at the radio station, Rogério Wenceslau, also reported in their program that a high-ranking state government official had threatened them with arrest following the publication.

The National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj), the main labor and professional organization representing media workers in Brazil, and the local union issued a joint statement repudiating the attack as a “threat to press freedom, the right to information, and democracy itself.”

Police officer Heverton Carvalho, who is overseeing Melo’s case, said to CPJ in a Whatsapp message that all investigation lines are being considered, including whether the attack is connected to Melo’s journalistic work. He added, “So far we don’t have enough elements to confirm that.”