Fernão Lara Mesquita is a Brazilian journalist with more than 30 years of experience in the field. He is a member of the board of directors of Grupo Estado, which publishes the daily newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and Jornal da Tarde. Grupo Estado also controls a radio network and Agência Estado, the largest news agency in Brazil. Mesquita is the former director of the opinion page and currently a journalist for O Estado de S. Paulo, a newspaper that has repeatedly faced censorship by the Brazilian government – including during the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985, and during the current democratic government. During his 2011 Oslo Freedom Forum speech, Mesquita warned that Latin America was, “Maybe in the lowest point in a decade on freedom of speech.” In a 2014 column, Mesquita accused the recently impeached president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, of staging a “coup against democracy” and called on journalists to denounce the policies of the president in their reporting. Mesquita continues write about journalism, politics, and civil society issues in Brazil through his blog, Vespeiro.com.
