Two Brazilian journalists working near the Paraguayan border were killed over the weekend.
The deaths of newspaper owner Onei de Moura and radio reporter Divino Aparecido Carvalho, both in Paraná state, add to an increasingly grim toll in the country.
Onei de Moura, owner of the weekly newspaper Costa Oeste, was shot and killed in Santa Helena. He was standing near a vending machine when a man with whom he had apparently quarrelled earlier that evening in a bar shot him.
A police official said the cause of the shooting was "a personal issue."
However, several media sources reported that Costa Oeste was well known for its criticism of local politicians, a characteristic that has previously been identified as a major factor in journalist killings in Brazil.
The suspected gunman later turned himself him in, but was later released despite confessing to the crime.
Calvalho was ambushed in Foz do Iguaçu as he stepped from his car at Radio Cultura AM. Despite his wounds from three shots, he managed to drive off towards an emergency station but, unable to brake, he crashed into a parked ambulance. He died later in hospital.
International Press Institute press freedom manager Anthony Mills said: "We are seeing a deadly pattern of media-directed violence emerging in Brazil."
Source: IPI
