By Isabela Fraga
On Monday, Aug. 27, Brazilian civil society organizations launched the campaign "Freedom of Expression--A New Law for a New Time," reported the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication. The campaign marks the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian Telecommunications Law and calls for a new "general communication law" that defends plurality, diversity, and equal access to media and telecommunications in the South American country.
According to the campaign's website, the movement started in 2009, during the First National Conference of Communications, in which more than 600 proposals were approved detailing a new communications law in Brazil. Due to the election of a new government, however, the administration did not follow through on the proposals.
The campaign's objective is to pressure the government to draft a regulatory framework that would create a more democratic media, said the Consumer Defense Institute (Idec in Portuguese). Along with Idec, 22 other civil society groups are participating in the campaign, including the Unified Workers' Central, the Brazilian Press Association, the collective Intervozes, and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters.
The campaign will simultaneously launch in São Paulo, Aracaju, Brasília, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, and Curitiba with public demonstrations, video exhibitions, and debates, reported the newspaper Brasil de Fato.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
