An unprecedented legal ruling announced this week holds Brazil responsible for the forced disappearance of more than 70 opponents of the military dictatorship (1964–1985) and says the government has violated the right of family members “to seek and receive information and to learn the truth.”
In recent days Brazil has seen various demonstrations in support of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI) issued a statement supporting the publication of documents from a cache of 250,000 secret diplomatic cables, arguing that the information is in the public's interest.
President-elect Dilma Rousseff said the only control on the media should be a TV's “remote control,” O Estado de S. Paulo reports. The remarks were seen as a signal that Rousseff would not send a media bill to congress with provisions that regulate radio and TV content.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva harshly criticized the arrest of Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website that has been releasing a cache of 250,000 secret diplomatic cables. According to Terra, the president if the first international leader to speak out against the arrest of Assange, who was wanted on rape charges in Sweden. “The guy was only publishing that which he read. And if he read it, it's because someone else wrote it. The blame doesn't belong to who released it, the blame is with who wrote it," Lula said, as quoted by Dow Jones newswire. "So, WikiLeaks, my solidarity for disclosing
The Brazilian government is preparing the first version of a bill to establish a new regulatory framework for telecommunications, which includes a new National Communications Agency (Agência Nacional de Comunicação – ANC) with the power to regulate radio and TV content, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
Police in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte claim that a convicted drug trafficker ordered the killing of radio journalist Francisco Gomes de Medeiros from prison, El Diário de Natal reports.
Shortly after blasting the traditional media in his first exclusive interview with bloggers, outgoing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva repeated his critique in an exclusive interview with a collective of ten community radio stations.
Federal prosecutors in São Paulo have begun to investigate whether the Portuguese media group Ongoing has violated a constitutional provision that bans foreigners from owning more than 30 percent of a media outlet, Folha de S. Paulo reports. The investigation was motivated by a complaint from the National Newspaper Association (ANJ) and the Brazilian Association of Radio and TV Broadcasters (Abert).
Coverage of violence and crime by the Brazilian media is being enriched by the so-called “Police Twitterverse.” Going around department hierarchies, officers are using Twitter to narrate their day-to-day work, denounce corruption and abuse, and share their thoughts on issues ranging from police institutions to media coverage. Their posts are closely followed by reporters and academics, creating an active, critical space on social networks for discussing public security that is spilling over into how police issues are covered.
Police in Rio de Janeiro arrested a drug leader Sunday who was convicted of taking part in the assassination of TV Globo reporter Tim Lopes in 2002. Eliseu Felicio de Sousa was captured during this weekend's police invasion of the Alemão shantytown complex, the same region where Lopes was killed. The arrest was broadcast on live TV during extensive coverage of the police operations. (See video below of TV Globo's coverage.)
The massive police mobilization against drug traffickers in the “favela” shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro has led journalists and the city’s residents to find creative ways to follow, debate, and share information about the ongoing violence.
Folha.com, the online site of Brazil's largest circulating newspaper, has begun to host the blog The Wall ("Mural"), the start of a news agency for communities in Greater São Paulo. The project was created by journalist Bruno Garcez as part of a Knight International Journalism Fellowship offered through the International Center for Journalists. Mural will be produced by a network of more than 50 community correspondents, who participated in training workshops about citizen journalism.