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 and also controls a radio network and Agência Estado, the largest news agency in Brazil. Mesquita is the former director of the opinion page of 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.

About

Fernão Lara Mesquita began working at O Estado de S. Paulo in 1973, where he worked as a copy editor and investigative reporter. Mesquita has also worked with Jornal da Tarde which, along with O Estado, is published by Grupo Estado.

O Estado de S. Paulo has faced censorship throughout its history. In 1974, during the military dictatorship, the director of O Estado—Julio de Mesquita Neto, the uncle of Fernão Mesquita—was granted the Golden Pen of Freedom Award by the World Association of Newspapers. Because Mesquita Neto refused to practice self-censorship, O Estado was one of the few major dailies to have government censors installed directly in its editorial department.

O Estado has also faced suppression during the current democratic government. The paper has been censored by the courts, via an injunction blocking it from publishing material related to the corruption investigation into the son of former Brazilian president and current Senate president, José Sarney.