In his first news conference held exclusively for bloggers, outgoing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva strongly criticized traditional media, saying he had quit reading the opposition press, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reports. Among his plans after leaving office Jan. 1, Lula says he’ll blog and tweet, Spain’s El País says.
Brazilian photojournalist Paulo Whitaker, who works for the Reuters news agency, was shot in the left shoulder Friday (Nov. 26) while covering the third day of gun battles in Rio de Janeiro, The Guardian reports. His injury was not life-threatening, and he was recovering quickly, Reuters says.
The Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalina Botero, said access to public information in Brazil is an important tool for understanding what happened during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). She argued that the release of such documents, however, cannot be accompanied by any type of rules on the use of the documents by journalists or other members of the public. "Media outlets have the responsibility to manage news, but beyond guaranteeing access, the law cannot establish restrictions on the use of information,” she said.
Outgoing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gave his first blogger-only interview Nov. 24, Bruno Siffredi writes for Estadão. The interview was streamed live by the participants and on the government’s Blog do Planalto.
Journalists in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte earn a base salary of $525 a month, the lowest in Brazil. They have launched a strong Internet campaign to criticize the decline of the profession in their state, and to demand a salary increase and respect for their human rights, the Portal Imprensa media news site reports.
Journalists from Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil will gather in the border cities of the three countries Nov. 26-28, 2010, to attend the First International Journalists Meeting on the Triple Frontier. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is a co-sponsor of the gathering.
Gabriel Michi, president of the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish), explains the upcoming International Meeting for Journalists on the Triple Frontier, Nov. 26-28, 2010, in Paraguay. During the meeting, journalists from Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil will analyze and debate news coverage of themes pertinent to the tri-national region, such as contraband, terrorism, and drug- and human trafficking.
Since she began her career as a journalist in the medium-sized city of Juiz de Fora at the age of 22, Daniela Arbex was always told she needed to move to Rio de Janiero, São Paulo, or Brasília to have an impact. But she decided to stay and work for Tribuna de Minas, a paper with a circulation of 15,000, distributed in a city of around 600,000 people. It was here that she became a renowned Brazilian investigative journalist.
The Superior Military Court (STM) has given the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper access to documents on President-elect Dilma Rousseff’s arrest and imprisonment during the dictatorship (1964-1985), Folha reports. Carlos Alberto Soares, the court’s top justice, had previously denied the paper access to the information, saying he was attempting to prevent it from being used for political purposes during the presidential election campaign.
In what is being called a victory for free speech, a Brazilian judge has dismissed defamation and libel charges against U.S. journalist Joe Sharkey, who survived a collision over the Amazon in September 2006 that killed 154 people. Sharkey blamed failures in Brazil's air control system for the collision between the private jet in which he was flying and a commercial airliner. He reported the decision on his blog.
The federal government is preparing a new media bill for President-elect Dilma Rousseff and invited international specialists to discuss regulation issues at the International Seminar on Electronic Communication and Media Convergence, which took place Nov. 9-10 in Brasília. The conference gathered almost 300 representatives from government, industry, academia, international organizations, and journalism.
The editor of Jornal de Londrina, in Paraná state (south), has petitioned the Supreme Court to suspend a ruling requiring it to pay $353,000 for moral damages to an ex-mayor of Sertanópolis. The editor says the small paper will have to close if it’s obliged to pay.