Against the expectations of Brazil's President Dilma Roussef, the proposed information access law will not be approved Tuesday, May 3, World Press Freedom Day, as originally anticipated. Former president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 and is a current senator for the center-right Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), halted the information access bill, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
A state judge in Brazil's Federal District (DF) sentenced Editora Abril – the company that publishes Veja magazine – and journalist Diego Escosteguy to pay $64,000 in damages to ex DF Governor Joaquim Roriz, reports Consultor Jurídico. The court ruled that Veja magazine used offensive language in a story that discussed the politician.
Brazil’s National Union of Islamic Bodies (UNI) launched an online campaign to gather 5,000 signatures in order to sue Veja magazine for the April 6 article “Brazil’s Terror Network.”
Senator Roberto Requião (PMDB) forcefully took Radio Bandeirantes reporter Victor Boyadjian’s tape recorder after being asked about his $15,000 a month pension, O Globo reports. He receives the pension as the former governor of Paraná, a post from which he resigned to run for the Senate.
On May 24, drug traffickers tossed three homemade bombs toward the press team covering a police raid in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, iG reports.
A judge in Tocantins state has issued an indefinite injunction against the Portal Arnaldo Filho news site, blocking it from publishing complaints by ex-workers at a private school in the city of Araguaína, Conexão Tocantins reports.
In a joint session on April 19, the Human Rights and Science and Technology committees passed an information access bill, which ends the state of indefinite secrecy for public records, the Agência Senado reports.
The Parliamentary Front for Freedom of Expression and the Right to Communication with Popular Participation was launched by Brazilian lawmakers on April 19, Agência Câmara dos Deputados reports.
The director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, condemned the April 9 killing of Brazilian journalist Luciano Leitão Pedrosa.
What was supposed to be a debate about the Middle East on the program Manhattan Connection, on the Brazilian channel Globonews, ended up creating a diplomatic crisis between Brazil and Jordan when the journalist Caio Blinder called Queen Rania de Jordania a “piranha” while commenting about first ladies of the region, reported The Telegraph.
Renowned Brazilian journalist Fernando Rodrigues, who has worked as a reporter, editor, foreign correspondent, and columnist and was a Nieman Fellow in 2007, has been instrumental in the push for Brazil to finally adopt a freedom of information law. The president of the Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism (Abraji), which is one of the world's top investigative groups, Rodrigues also played a key role in the 2004 launch of the Forum for the Right to Access Public Information. Due in part to years of Rodrigues' tireless efforts campaigning for freedom of information, Brazil finally is poised to enact a p
Guilherme Mendes, Carlos Batista, and Edmilson Luz for TV Liberal were arrested in the city of Acará, Pará, while reporting on complaints by users at a local health clinic, Portal ORM reports.