The editor of the newspaper Correio de Notícias, Afonso Locks, was followed and beaten last week in the city of Cerejeiras (in the state of Rondonia), by persons linked to ex-Mayor José Eugênio Zigue de Souza, reported Folha de Rondônia, where the journalist also is a correspondent.
The Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism (Abraji) concluded its annual congress last week, showing that it has become one of the world’s best and largest investigative journalism groups.
Fernando Collor de Mello, a former president and current senator, threatened Hugo Marques, a reporter for IstoÉ magazine, for publishing an article about efforts to invalidate his candidacy for governor of Alagoas state, O Globo reports.
Vânia Costa, a journalist for the newspaper O Mato Grosso in the central-western state of the same name, reported suffering harassment after she tried to investigate alleged misuse of federal funds in the city of Sinop, Folha Online reports.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a decree that created an intergovernmental commission to propose changes to the regulatory system that governs broadcast media, O Estado de S. Paulo reports.
Cuban authorities have blocked Yoani Sanchez, author of Generation Y, from traveling to Brazil to see a documentary on censorship in Cuba and Honduras, EFE reports.
A Brazilian federal court ordered the federal government to pay more than $28,000 in "moral damages" to a freelance photographer who, 10 years ago, was physically and verbally assaulted by soldiers during an end-of-the-year party at the Copacabana fort in Rio de Janeiro.
Representatives from Brazil's media outlets sent a document to Minister Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes, the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs, arguing that "freedom to think and express opinions and information, without control by whomever, is the very essence of democracy," according to Folha de S. Paulo (link for subscribers) and O Globo.
The proposed amendment to the Constitution (PEC 386/09) that would re-establish the requirement for a professional degree in order to practice journalism was approved Wednesday, July 14, by a special commission of Brazil's House of Representatives, reported Agência Câmara. The proposal first must be voted on by the full House before it can go to a vote in the Senate.
The Rio de Janeiro-based Jornal do Brasil will stop circulating its 119-year-old print edition and appear only online, O Globo reports. The paper’s owner, Nelson Tanure, says he will set the date for the changeover this week.
Journalist Rodrigo Santos, of Rádio Cidade in Brusque, Santa Catarina, was punched and kicked by an official of the Catarinense Soccer Federation (FCF), Delfim Peixoto Neto, reported Diário Catarinense. After the attack, Santos lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital.
Reporter Márcia Pache, of TV Centro Oeste, the affiliate of the channel Sistema Brasileño de Televisión (SBT) in Mato Grosso, filed another complaint against Councilman Lourivaldo Rodrigues de Moraes, of the city of Pontes e Lacerda, for continuing to intimidate her, reported Comunique-se.