Alexandre Rolim, journalist for the news site Parecis.net, accused Mauro Berft, mayor of Campo Novo do Parecis, in the state of Mato Grosso, of having threatened and attacked him on March 11. According to the reporter, the mayor was upset by some articles Rolim had published.
Barely a month after the launch of The Daily, the first media outlet exclusively published on the iPad tablet device, Brasil 247 will be the first such publication in Brazil, Mac World Brasil reports. The media launched earlier this week and – unlike its U.S. counterpart – it is free.
Brazil’s National Journalism Union (Fenaj) is organizing a caravan to the capital of Brasilia to garner support for a constitutional amendment that would reestablish the requirement for a journalism degree for all members of the profession.
Reporter Andrei Netto, Libya correspondent of O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, was freed by government forces Thursday after being held for eight days. He was expected to return soon to Paris, where he lives, Reuters reports.
São Paulo police recaptured Wilson de Moraes da Silva, who was convicted for the death of journalist Ivandel Godinho Júnior, Globo Notícias reports. The journalist was kidnapped in 2003 and his body was found and identified by a DNA test in 2006. The police found the fugitive after an anonymous tip claimed that Silva was selling drugs in a house in São Paulo.
A top official in the Social Defense Secretariat in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, Colonel Elías Augusto Siqueira de Souza, was fired last week after pressuring a local journalist to reveal his sources, Folha de Pernambuco reports.
The Brazilian Senate is considering a proposed Constitutional amendment that would make Internet access a right for all citizens, according to El Nuevo Herald. Sen. Rodrigo Rollemberg, author of the proposal, wants to make the government responsible for providing Internet access to everyone.
Journalists working for big media companies and their independent blogger colleagues are facing the same problem: the risk of lawsuits for their work.
Despite strong results reported by media companies like Estado and Editora Abril, the layoffs of journalists in São Paulo already total 207 this year.
Brazil’s Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo says he wants to “comb through” the omnibus bill dealing telecommunications and broadcast regulation, O Estado de S. Paulo reports. The goal is to clarify the languages and provisions in the controversial bill that was initially proposed by Bernardo’s predecessor, Franklin Martins.