An injunction by the Regional Electoral Court in Tocantins state says 84 media outlets are not allowed to publish or broadcast news about a criminal investigation into the state’s incumbent gubernatorial candidate, Carlos Gaguim (PMDB), writes Veja reporter Reinaldo Azevedo. Gaguim’s campaign team formally complained to the court that such reports involved the use of journalism with the political goal of supporting rival candidates.
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.
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 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.
The Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Stations (ABERT), has decided to go to the Federal Supreme Court over two sections of the Election Law: paragraphs forbidding jokes about politicians and the prevention of broadcasters from disseminating opinions about party candidates during campaigns.
A group of comedians gathered Sunday, Aug. 22, on the beach of Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro, to demonstrate against a law that bans parodies and jokes about candidates during election campaigns in Brazil, reported O Globo.
Even as controversy erupted in Venezuela over a ban on the publication of violent photos, in Colombia a senator from the ruling coalition has offered up a bill that would prohibit the publication of "mildly pornographic" or sensational images in print media and websites, reported El Espectador and the news agency Europa Press.
A Venezuelan court has partially revoked an earlier ruling that put a 30-day ban on photos depicting violence from being published in all newspapers, reported the Wall Street Journal and EFE.
In light of the investigation into the publication of a photo of dead bodies in a Caracas morgue, a Venezuelan court banned for a month the national press from publishing "violent, bloody, or grotesque images, whether of crime or not," that can affect children and adolescents, reported The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press
The Paraguayan Journalists Union condemned an attack against Martín Caballero, a radio announcer from Radio Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in the city of Villa Hayes. The group also came out against attempts to censor the radio station.
An impending ruling from the Salvadoran Supreme Court has created uncertainty and concern among journalists in the country, and sparked a debate on the limits of freedom of expression, reported El Salvador and El Faro.