According to media reports, the security personnel of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro used violence against journalists who reported on his trip to Rome for the G-20 summit.
According to an article in the Brazilian newspaper “O Globo”, the television journalist Leonardo Monteiro of the television channel “TV Globo” was punched and poked in the stomach by security guards of the Brazilian President Bolsonaro on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome. He asked why Bolsonaro did not take part in the G20 events on Sunday.
A video recorded by another journalist shows chaotic scenes with security forces harassing the press and Bolsonaro supporters berating the journalists. It is still unclear whether the security forces were Brazilians or Italians.
The Bolsonaros office and the press team at the G-20 summit have not yet responded to inquiries.
The weekend in Rome had gone bad for Bolsonaro. Videos from G-20 events showed him as an isolated figure. He was missing from the photo taken at the Trevi Fountain with the heads of state and government.
On the streets of Rome, he was loudly criticized for his handling of the pandemic in his country and called by critics as a “genocide”.