Journalist Esmael Morais’ blog is back online after being shut down more than two months ago at the request of Beto Richa, the governor of Paraná state. However, the journalist is still barred from discussing the politician or his family, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
Edinaldo Figueira, newspaper founder, blogger and political party leader was shot to death Wednesday, June 15, in Brazil, according to Terra. Figueira, president of the Serra do Mel municipal chapter of Brazil's Workers' Party (PT in Portuguese) in Brazil's northern state of Rio Grande do Norte, had started a local newspaper and maintained a blog about local issues, according to Rede Brasil Atual.
The Brazilian government said it will no longer wade into the fight over adding a permanent secrecy provision to the information access law that is pending in Congress, Correio Braziliense and Folha de S. Paulo report. The amendment would allow top-secret documents to remain classified indefinitely.
At the II National Meeting of Progressive Bloggers, held June 17-19 in Brasília, Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva criticized the press and thanked bloggers for their support during the electoral campaign that brought Dilma Rousseff to the presidency, according to Agência Estado.
Brazilian journalist Wagner Florêncio Império is being investigated by São Paulo police for allegedly using his position as a reporter to obtain secret information about police investigations and give that information to tax fraud suspects in the city of Taboão da Serra, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
Press, legal, and human rights groups are united in their opposition to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s decision to allow permanent secrecy for official documents as part of a pending information access law.
On the floor of the Brazilian Senate, legislators called for a vote “as soon as possible” on a constitutional amendment reestablishing the requirement to hold a media-related degree to practice journalism, Agência Senado reports.
Gaspar Domingos Lazari, the mayor of Confresa, in the western Brazil state of Mato Grosso, is accused of sending “henchmen” to threaten journalist Leandro Nascimento because of articles that revealed corruption at city hall, reported Gazeta Digital.
The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji in Portuguese) laments the government's change of heart toward a proposed information access law.
Inspired by the recent protests in Spain that, since March, have demanded economic and electoral system changes, filmmaker Raquel Diniz, 31, created a collaborative map to pinpoint cases of corruption in Brazil, according to Folha de S. Paulo.
After backlash from some government officials, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has changed her mind about a proposed information access law, and now supports the ability to keep official documents secret forever, reported Terra.
The Science and Technology, Communication and Information Commission of the lower chamber of Congress in Brazil rejected a bill that would have specifically allowed the use of the Internet as an official outlet for publication of federal, state and local information, according to IDGNow.