A Brazilian TV Difusora news crew was attacked on the night of Saturday, Aug. 18, while covering the inauguration of a public square in the city of Bacabal, in Maranhão, according to the news site Imirante.
According to a court in São Paulo, the Brazilian press has the right to release all material leaked by government agents and confidentiality only applies to the police or judicial authorities who are responsible for it, reported the Counsel's website on Wednesday, Aug. 15.
Research from the International News Safety Institute (INSI) ranked Brazil among the five worst countries for journalists during the first half of the year. That places Brazil alongside Nigeria, Somalia, Indonesia, and Mexico, reported the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji in Portuguese) on Thursday, Aug. 9. As of June, at least 70 journalists and other news media professionals were killed worldwide because of their job -- that's 14 more journalists than the first six months of 2011.
Degree requirements to practice journalism in Brazil could be about to make a comeback. On Tuesday, Aug. 7, the Senate approved a bill to amend the Constitution that would reestablish degree requirements for journalists after the Federal Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional in 2009, reported the website Terra.
A Brazilian photojournalist was arrested and handcuffed by a police officer while filming an accident involving a military police car that left five injured in Goiânia, on Thursday, Aug. 9, reported the news portal G1. The cameraman works for the TV station TV Goiânia in the state of Goiás.
In the state of Mato Grosso, in central-western Brazil, two Brazilian television stations were fined by the electoral court for broadcasting unfavorable reports about the administration of Mayor Juarez Costa of the city of Sinop, reported the newspaper Diário de Cuiabá on Thursday, Aug. 9.
Brazilian Minister Gilmar Mendes of the Federal Supreme Court asked federal police to open an investigation into Wikipedia for its distorted and "ideological" posts, reported the newspaper Estado de São Paulo.
Currently in Brazil there are more than 4,000 licensed active community radio stations. If non-authorized radio stations were included, this number would drastically increase. The process for granting broadcasting licenses, however, is slow: in some cases, it can take 10 years to get a broadcast license. As such, it's not rare to find cases such as that of José Eduardo Rocha Santos, owner of a community radio in the state of Sergipe, who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for operating a radio station without a license.
The owner of a Brazilian community radio station in the city of Ilha das Flores (in the state of Sergipe) was absolved by a regional court after being sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for operating the radio station without authorization.
A Brazilian journalist and photographer from the newspaper O Globo were threatened on July 23 by the mayor of the city of Redenção (in the state of Pará), Wagner Montes, who is also the candidate for reelection in 2012, reported O Globo.
A Brazilian bodyguard for José Serra, mayoral candidate in São Paulo, attacked a radio journalist during a press conference that took place on Tuesday, July 24, reported the news portal Terra.
On Sunday, July 29, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo will launch a new design for its printed edition, to commemorate 87 years of publishing, reported the news site Jornalistas na Web.