Brazil’s Senate president, José Sarney, blocked an attempt to censure Senator Robert Requião, who forcefully took a journalists tape recorder, erased what was on it, and threatened to hit the media worker during an April interview, G1 reports.
Apparently, Senate lawyers do not believe physical aggression by one of its members constitutes a breach of decorum. According to Estado de S. Paulo, the dismissal document said Requião’s actions were appropriate conduct for a member of the Senate, so he will not face any punishment.
The request for censure was made by the Federal District Journalists’ Syndicate soon after the incident. The journalist told Portal Imprensa that the decision to dismiss the case is alarming, as his only intent was to gather information from a public figure who “has an obligation to provide clarification.”
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.
