By Dean Graber
A court injunction prohibits the newspaper Diário do Grande ABC—which covers seven industrial cities in Greater São Paulo—from publishing articles about a city government's questionable disposal of school furniture that was said to be in good condition, the newspaper reports. The National Association of Newspapers calls the injunction prior censorship.
In February, the Diário do Grande ABC newspaper reported that the city government of Sao Bernardo do Campo was disposing of chairs and tables from the local public school system at recycling centers, even though they were in good condition. According to O Globo newspaper, approximately one third of the report presented City Hall's version, denying that the school furniture was in usable condition.
The mayor of São Bernardo do Campo, Luiz Marinho, went to court seeking the right of reply, indemnization for injury, and a ban on the newspaper from publishing further reports associating the topic with his name. His petition was accepted by a civil court in Santo André—an industrial satellite city of Greater São Paulo.
Such decisions have been common in Brazil. The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo has been prohibited for more than nine months, from publishing information about investigations by the federal police related to businessman Fernando Sarney, son of Senate leader and Ex-President José Sarney.
See Brazilian news stories in the Portuguese version of this post, using this online translator.
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.
