Google this week released an online digital tool designed to track censorship around the world, according to the BBC.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has created a map depicting media censorship in Brazil leading up to the Oct. 3 elections for president, governors, and federal and state senators and representatives.
In the wake of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s statements accusing the press of acting like a political party, unions, several worker groups, government partisans, social movement activists, and progressive bloggers are planning an “action against media coup-ism” this Thursday, Sept. 23, at the headquarters of the São Paulo Journalists’’ Union, O Globo reports.
The Electoral Court in Mato Grosso state issued an injunction against the state’s largest media company, Gazeta, preventing it from publishing stories that say acting Federal Deputy and current Senate candidate Carlos Abicalil (PT) supports decriminalizing abortion, A Gazeta and Folha de S. Paulo report. The ruling would fine the paper A Gazeta and the TV station Canal 10 more than $58,000 if they fail to comply.
The National Newspaper Association (ANJ), the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters, and the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) condemned statements by President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva that he will “ defeat the papers and magazines that behave as if they were political parties,” O Globo reports.
The federal prosecutor’s office has accused TV Globo and the Group of 13 soccer consortium of engaging in unfair trade practices in negotiating broadcasting contracts for the Campeonato Brasileiro, the country’s top soccer division.
Military police accompanied by a court official confiscated television sets, cameras, furniture, and even the transmitters of the television channell TV Descalvados, affiliate of the SBT network in the town of Cáceres, in the western state of Mato Grosso, reported Midia News. The seizure, which forced the channel off the air, was court-ordered to pay for "moral damages" inflicted on the city's first lady, Gisele Fontes, according tol Diário de Cuiabá.
The police confiscated 850 copies of the weekly newspaper Impacto Campo Grande, based out of the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, for criticizing the state’s incumbent gubernatorial candidate André Puccinelli (PMDB), Midiamax and the paper’s blog report.
Brazil’s 2010 elections has been marked by the use of the internet as a means of broadening information access and bringing citizens into the electoral process, Global Voices’ Manuella Ribeiro writes. In this world of “Politics 2.0,” the candidates are using social media to campaign and participate in debates, while transparency and citizen participation projects are proliferating on the internet.
Janaina Ribeiro, reporter for Gazetweb, was attacked and robbed the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 8, during a rally in Maceió in support of the candidate for governor of Alagoas in northeast Brazil, Teotonio Vilela Filho.
The National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ) and the Journalists Union of Amapá released a statement condemning the Sept. 3 attack on TV Marco Zero, affiliate of the Record network in Macapá, according to Amapá Digital.
The Brazilian Federal Supreme Court ruled that radio and television stations now are free to broadcast political satire and jokes about election candidates. They also can issue opinions for or against candidates in news and editorial programs, as long as they don't serve as propaganda, reported O Estado de S. Paulo.