The Brazilian Senate recently bucked a 2009 ruling by the South American country's Supreme Court when it approved a bill reestablishing the requirement that all practicing journalists have an advanced degree. The following post is part of series produced by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas debating the requirement. We invite you, the reader, to share your opinion in the comments section below.
Read the full post in Portuguese here.
Con: Ivana Bentes*
The Supreme Court's decision to end degree requirements to practice journalism in Brazil in 2009 opened a series of new questions and debates about the media in a post-digital world, far more interesting than the old corporate Wailing Wall.
That decision threw out the "invisibility" of hundreds and thousands of young freelancers and independent journalists, along with media professionals with other communication skills, who were prohibited from practicing journalism.
What's important isn't the degree itself; it's the gap in training. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro graduates journalists, publicists, editors, radio and TV reporters. None of these fields require a mandatory diploma and our graduates are among the most sought after by media companies.
Communication and journalism are too important to be "reserved" for "professionals." Communication and journalism today are the "right" of everyone, to be exercised by any Brazilian, with or without a diploma.
*Professor of Social Communication at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Pro: Sylvia Moretzsohn*
The main misunderstanding in the debate over degree requirements is the confusion over freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Everyone in a democratic country should have freedom of expression but it's worth asking if journalists working for large media companies enjoy this same freedom. Freedom of the press, in the current context of large media companies, has nothing to do with the battle at the end of the XVIII century against absolutism or colonialism, but rather with the practice of a profession.
Is journalism a profession? It seems so. In the Brazilian case we've had a group of people exclusively dedicated to producing, editing and distributing news, which is different from expressing an opinion.
Degree requirements don't impede collaboration between journalists and citizens; it never has. People and professionals from diverse backgrounds will continue to contribute to newspapers as columnists and sources. A degree, it goes without saying, bestows respect on the profession of journalism, whose rules need to be observed to benefit the public.
*Professor of Social Communication at the Fluminense Federal University
