After arguments from the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj in Portuguese) and similar journalist groups, senators approved a bill to amend the Constitution that requires practicing journalists to have an advanced degree on Nov. 30.
Brazil's military police attacked journalists covering a workers' protest on Nov. 24, in front of Johnson & Johnson's offices in São José dos Campos, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, reported the website Agora Vale.
Brazil recently passed its own sunshine law, codifying the right to make freedom of information requests from the government. While the legal battle over the law’s passage is over, many Brazilians are unsure about how to go about making freedom of information requests. The website Queremos Saber (“We Want to Know”) is trying to change that. This pioneering project seeks to facilitate information requests in Brazil and make communication between citizens and public servants more transparent.
A journalist and her ex-boyfriend were shot to death at a gas station in the Brazilian coastal city of Vila Velha, in Espírito Santo, the morning of Saturday, Nov. 19, according to Folha Vitória.
With President Dilma Rousseff's signature on Friday, Nov. 18, Brazil became the 89th country in the world to approve a freedom of information law, reported the Forum of Public Information Access. The law, which guarantees public access to government data and documents as well as private entities that receive public funding, will take effect in six months.
Journalist and mayor of the city of Londrina in the Brazilian state of Paraná, Homero Barbosa Neto, has demanded the removal of a political cartoon published on a blog criticizing the city government, reported Blog do Esmael.
Following accusations of corruption involving Carlos Lupi, Brazilian minister of Labor and Employment, Lupi ordered the stories being investigated by the media to be leaked on one of the ministry's blogs, reported Terra.
The director of a community radio station in the Brazilian city of Araçagi, Paraíba tried to stab the host of another radio station during a live broadcast on Nov. 5, reported the news site Focando a Notícia.
After publishing a series of reports on government salaries in all three branches that exceed constitutional limits, the news site "Congresso em Foco" (Congress in Focus) became the target of a flood of legal charges from the public servants in the Brazilian Senate, reported the website on Oct. 31.
Cameraman for TV Bandeirantes Gelson Domingos died in a firefight between police and drug traffickers on Nov. 6 in the Antares favela in Santa Cruz, west of Rio de Janeiro, reported G1. Domingos was covering the police operation in the community when he was shot with a rifle.
Late in the evening of Nov. 7, students occupying the chancellor's office of the University of São Paulo in protest against the presence of military police on the campus attacked journalists covering the event, reported the news agency Estado.
Brazilian television reporter Monalisa Perrone was violently interrupted by several men while reporting the status of former President Lula's health for TV Globo's Jornal Hoje on Oct. 31, reported O Globo.