This is what the Union of Sao Paulo Journalists and the National Federation of Journalists think, according to a communique issued yesterday in rejection of the bias of the massive media in terms of this event.

The unions state that the national press acted unethically and didn´t take into account the side of the landless workers.

“It is the obligation of journalists to present both sides of a story”, denounced the union, and added that “sadly”, the members of the MST are portrayed as “usurpers of private property” and that their “basic right” to give their side is not respected.

Cutrale controls approximately 60 per cent of the world business of orange production and has a strategic alliance with US company Coca-Cola. Both companies are being denounced by the MST and international allies, who demand the release of nine members of the movement who occupied the field last October.

These lands are claimed by the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform but Cutrale filed a complaint to prevent the expropriation requested by the MST.

The press unions denounce that the judicial proceedings to determine who the owners of the lands are have not been covered enough by the Brazilian massive media.

Meanwhile, the MST will mobilize today in Sao Paulo against the “criminalization of social movements” and to demand the release of the nine activists.

“To make of the Brazilian agrarian problem a common crime has been the strategy of the most conservative sectors of the Brazilian society. This is not allowing the country to move forward and develop with true social justice”, reads the MST call to the mobilization.

Photo: Latuff