Folha.com, the online site of Brazil's largest circulating newspaper, has begun to host the blog The Wall ("Mural"), the start of a news agency for communities in Greater São Paulo. The project was created by journalist Bruno Garcez as part of a Knight International Journalism Fellowship offered through the International Center for Journalists. Mural will be produced by a network of more than 50 community correspondents, who participated in training workshops about citizen journalism.
The Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalina Botero, said access to public information in Brazil is an important tool for understanding what happened during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). She argued that the release of such documents, however, cannot be accompanied by any type of rules on the use of the documents by journalists or other members of the public. "Media outlets have the responsibility to manage news, but beyond guaranteeing access, the law cannot establish restrictions on the use of information,” she said.
Outgoing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gave his first blogger-only interview Nov. 24, Bruno Siffredi writes for Estadão. The interview was streamed live by the participants and on the government’s Blog do Planalto.
The Organization of American States (OAS) has launched scientificjournalism.org, the Inter-American Scientific Journalism Portal, billed as a “virtual space for the diffusion of knowledge, science and technology.”
Two journalists for Clarín newspaper, Daniel Santoro and Gerardo Young, testified Wednesday, Nov. 17, to a parliamentary commission that is investigating an illegal wiretapping scandal involving the city government of Buenos Aires, Clarín reports.
Panama's Latin American Journalism Center (CELAP in Spanish) will conduct the regional forum “Investigative Journalism Against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime” on Nov. 18–19, 2010, in Panama City, Panama. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is a co-sponsor of the event.
The Superior Military Court (STM) has given the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper access to documents on President-elect Dilma Rousseff’s arrest and imprisonment during the dictatorship (1964-1985), Folha reports. Carlos Alberto Soares, the court’s top justice, had previously denied the paper access to the information, saying he was attempting to prevent it from being used for political purposes during the presidential election campaign.
The city outskirts, or peripheries, comprise a third of the Brazilian population. Because these communities traditionally are ignored by mainstream media – except in matters where stereotypes dominate – a citizen journalism project created by the Brazilian journalist Bruno Garcez, 38 years old, is aimed at covering these neighborhoods in a more complete and accurate way. With a fellowship from the Knight Foundation, offered by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), Bruno took a year off from his position as a Washington correspondent for BBC Brasil to be able to train citizen journalists in the poor co
The National Archive of Brazil’s Revealed Memories project (Memórias Reveladas) – created to facilitate the release of dictatorship-era documents (1964-1985) – is now at the center of a debate between journalists and the authorities after its refusal to release documents during the election, O Globo reports. The document project justified its decision by claiming “journalists were misusing documents and seeking data about candidates involved in the electoral campaign.”
In an interview with Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, says he has information about Brazil that could have “shaken the electoral pretensions of some people.” Assange refused to reveal that information and said he had been unable to publish it due to the recent release of such a large quantity of documents about Iraq.
Claiming that "narco-novelas" hurt the social and psychological well-being of children and adolescents, Venezuela's Nacional Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) has forbidden television stations from airing two telenovelas, or soap operas, whose main protagonists are drug dealers, reported El Universal and BBC Mundo.
Claiming that “journalists were misusing documents and seeking data about candidates involved in the electoral campaign,” the National Archive denied researchers access to files, during recent campaigns, about the dictatorship (1964-1985), O Globo reports.