Sao Paulo (AFP)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro again attacked his country's press on Thursday calling it "rotten" and will ask local businessmen to deprive two media of advertisements.
During a week marked by a fall in the stock market, the depreciation of the real and the confirmation of the first case of coronavirus in Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro spent most of his weekly speech questioning the work of the national media who, according to him, seek to "defeat him".
"The first thing the press has as a general rule is the lie, I do not pretend, I affirm it," said the president of the extreme right at the start of his live broadcast on Facebook, which totaled more 78,000 views Thursday evening.
After questioning the work of journalists working for national media, Bolsonaro said he should meet with businessmen in Sao Paulo and that he intended to ask them not to advertise in the media such as Folha de S. Paulo and Epoca, whom he deems hostile to his government.
"What am I going to say to businessmen? (...) When you advertise in Folha de S. Paulo, for example, you are helping to sink Brazil, because they want to defeat me" , launched the head of state.
The president stood out with a series of attacks on the press, even before he came to power in January 2019.
Just ten days ago, Mr. Bolsonaro sparked unprecedented outrage by implying that a journalist with the highly respected daily Folha de S. Paulo, Patricia Campos Mello, tried to get a scoop against him in return of sexual relations with its source.
In December, when a journalist asked him about corruption charges against his eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, he replied with a homophobic comment, saying: "You have a terrible homosexual head!".
© 2020 AFP