In a decision that has been heavily criticized by organizations defending freedom of the press, Brazilian courts determined that a photographer was responsible for being hit by a rubber bullet during the country’s protests in 2013.
Voters of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities will go to the polls this year to choose the future leaders and legislators of their cities. A journalism institute has just released an online manual to help the local journalist whose job it is to inform these citizens ahead of municipal elections.
Earlier this year, Brazilian journalist Ricardo Gandour traded the newsroom’s frenetic environment for a somewhat more serene atmosphere of the university. The executive side of Gandour, director of content for media company Grupo Estado, gave space to his academic side as he became a visiting scholar at Columbia Journalism School in New York City. After a six-month stint, the editor will return to Brazil next week where he intends to continue uniting theory and practice.
Update (July 1, 2016): The legal processes and hearings against the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo were temporarily suspended on June 30 by a judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Rosa Weber, according to O Estado de S. Paulo.
Last week, Brazilian journalists released the campaign Journalists against Harassment in order to denounce cases of harassment against media professionals and to raise public awareness about the issue. The campaign was created after the firing of a reporter who had reported having suffered sexual harassment during an interview with a Brazilian musician.
Media fragmentation in the digital environment carries risks for journalism and for citizens in democratic societies, warns Brazilian journalist Ricardo Gandour, director of content for Grupo Estado and visiting scholar at Columbia Journalism School.
Update (June 16, 2016): Journalist Marcelo Auler was permitted to republish eight of the ten articles censored on his blog. Judge Vanessa Bassani threw out the lawsuit for compensation filed by investigator Maurício Moscardi Grillo after finding an error in the original petition: the home address of the investigator is located in a neighborhood served by another court, which means the original judge should not have heard the case.
Following spread of the news that WhatsApp had blocked communication between the Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper Extra and 70,000 readers, the publication’s account on the messaging service was restored late June 9, according to information published on the daily’s website.
The newspaper Extra from Rio de Janeiro is known internationally as a pioneer in the use of digital messaging platforms, especially WhatsApp, in order to communicate with thousands of its readers. However, Extra said that more than 70,000 of its readers who access their WhatsApp accounts have been hampered by the sudden cancellation of the newspaper’s numbers on the messaging platform because robots have identified them as possible spam.
Journalist Ricardo Melo will be reappointed to the post of CEO of the Brazilian Communications Company (EBC for its acronym in Portuguese) after being removed more than two weeks ago by the country’s interim president. On Thursday, June 2, judge of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Dias Toffoli granted an injunction authorizing Melo to return to work.
Two Latin American journalists will be recognized this year at the rededication of the Journalists Memorial of the Newseum, a U.S.-based museum and institute dedicated to freedom of expression.
Investigative pieces using data journalism from media outlets in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia are nominated among finalists in various categories for the Data Journalism Awards 2016, which have been organized by the Global Editors Network (GEN) since 2011.