Brazil: controversial Serbian film banned from RioFan festival

The controversial ‘A Serbian Film’ has been banned from being screened at the RioFan film festival by the event’s main sponsor, Brazilian national bank Caixa Econômica Federal. A statement on the festival’s website says organisers were given no further information behind the decision to veto the film’s screening. Meanwhile, a statement from a spokesman of the bank’s board claims “not every creative product fits in an unrestrained way in any medium or place.” RioFan responded by saying it opposes all forms of censorship.

‘A Serbian Film’ has raised controversy for its depictions of pornography and violence. It was cut from London’s FrightFest film festival last year, while in May the director of Spain’s Sitges film festival, Angel Sala, was charged with the exhibition of child pornography in connection with an adults-only screening of the film.

Mexico: missing crime reporter found dead

The decapitated body of Yolanda Ordaz, a reporter for regional paper Notiverhas been found in the Mexican city of Veracruz two days after she went missing. Ordaz had reportedly been investigating the 20th June murder of her colleague, columnist Miguel Angel López Velasco, his wife, and son, a photographer with the newspaper. Ordaz was also said to have received death threats in connection to her work. Local authorities, meanwhile have said there are indications her death is related to organised crime, rather than her work as a journalist.

According to reports, a note found with the body seems to connect Ordaz’s murder to the López killing. The note read: “Friends also betray. Sincerely, Carranza.” This may tie the murder to the chief suspect in the López case, identified as former traffic police officer Juan Carlos Carranza.

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