This is an English translation of an article published in Folha de S.Paulo on May 3, 2026, for World Press Freedom Day. Read the original here. It is a collaborative piece by Media Defence and our partner Abraji (Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism), examining the use of judicial harassment against the press in Brazil and globally.
Sophisticated repression and judicial harassment aimed at silencing journalists are likely to intensify in election years. Yet one of the most concerning consequences of this escalation is self-censorship — journalists who, having seen what happened to their colleagues, decide not to publish at all.
Something has changed in the way governments silence journalists. They are still arrested or assaulted — 119 were killed worldwide in 2025, according to UNESCO. But a more sophisticated form of repression has taken hold: judicial harassment.
These are strategic processes designed to silence journalists, whether by overloading them with identical lawsuits across multiple jurisdictions, burdening them with disproportionate compensation claims, or pursuing criminal proceedings to arrest and stigmatise them. And it is working, because it allows political actors to cloak censorship in the appearance of due process.
Media Defence’s caseload has doubled in just five years. In 2025 alone, it supported journalists and media professionals in 450 cases across more than 100 countries — a record high. And this number is likely to be surpassed: in the first weeks of 2026, requests for help had already increased by 30%.
Almost a third of the cases come from Latin America. And Brazil deserves special attention, given the sophistication that judicial harassment has acquired.
Continuous monitoring by Abraji shows that attacks tend to intensify in election years, with judicial harassment becoming the preferred tool of political or powerful private actors. From 2008 to 2024, four of the eight plaintiffs with the most lawsuits against journalists in Brazil were political actors, and six of the ten largest verdicts came from lawsuits filed by a judge who was the subject of a news report.
On World Press Freedom Day, it is important to note that judicial harassment against journalists does not occur when a judge legitimately prosecutes a reporter, but when the justice system is weaponised against the press. Brazil’s Supreme Court, sitting as a full bench, has consistently upheld press freedom as a constitutional right. Yet that precedent is not always followed, even within the court itself, where individual justices ruling alone have at times deviated from it. This also occurs in the court’s monocratic decisions, which encourage an even more worrying trend in lower courts.
This is not unique to Brazil. Around the world, the script is strikingly similar. Criminal charges are brought to imprison critics. National security laws are stretched to ensnare reporters. Journalists covering protests and elections face fabricated accusations. Disinformation campaigns are mounted against those who publish accurate reports exposing ministers or billionaires.
Russia’s 2012 “foreign agents” law has inspired similar legislation in Venezuela, Paraguay, El Salvador, Peru, and Georgia. These laws attempt to frame journalists as spies or even terrorists, even when their only foreign connection is a reporting grant from an international foundation.
What connects all of this is the fear of fierce independent journalism. Recent cases against journalists don’t fit into a single political ideology. This global phenomenon of prosecuting reporters weakens democratic accountability and normalises impunity for those who attack the messenger.
More worrying than the growing number of cases are those that never reach us: journalists who saw what happened to colleagues and decided not to publish a story. This silence is the goal. And it’s becoming increasingly clear.
Article co-authored by:
Carlos Gaio CEO of Media Defence
Ana Carolina Moreno President of Abraji
