Journalist Creates Media Storm

Sometimes journalism is a curious thing. Especially in our days of social media. Recently a Danish journalist found out just how far a comment on Facebook can travel. In the second half of 2013 he went to Brazil to cover the preparations for the World Cup. The journalist Mikkel Keldorf Jensen ultimately wanted to stay until the end of the Cup. In march 2014 he went to Fortaleza to cover a football tournament for homeless children. Meeting these children became a turning point for him. So appalled by what he saw, he quickly decided to leave Brazil and the World Cup.

When he got back to Denmark he wrote an update in Danish which lead to this article. In it the journalist asks him why he left Brazil. He claims that the Brazilian police has Death Patrols and that they execute street children to tidy up Fortaleza for the world cup, so that journalist don’t see the dark side of Brazil. The only connection that is hard to prove, he says, is the link to the world cup. He then explains that his snooping around will put the street children’s life in danger, so he gives up the story and flee Brazil fearing for his life. Brazilian colleagues, he says, even recommend him not to write anything in Portuguese about the matter before leaving the country.

After his undocumented comments had made the rounds in most of the Danish media he posted this post on Facebook. That is essentially the Portuguese version of the comments made in Danish. A newspaper from Ceara picked up the story and from there it spread all over facebook and internet news-sites. Initial reporting was based only on the facebook post. Which lead to some criticizing the standards of reporting. Later as debate raged, interviews with mr. Keldorf explaining his reasons surged.

Eventually someone got around to asking workers of the NGO’s, that helped mr. Keldorf in Fortaleza, about his claims of death squads “cleaning” up the streets for the world cup. None of them could confirm that such practice existed. There had been rumours about it during the 2013 confederations cup, but nothing concrete had shown up when investigated. As for tourists and journalists putting the life of children living in the streets in danger, they said that would be an exaggeration of facts. The life of children in the streets is tough and life threatening, regardless of the presence of foreigners.

In an update on Facebook, prior to the media storm, he writes that he has found an apartment in an exclusive neighbourhood in Copenhagen and hopes for a new source of income. With his new found media-fame getting paid probably won’t be an issue. Fingers crossed he’d actually back up future reporting with research and reliable sources.