A bill that would criminalize leaking or publishing information on confidential criminal investigations and trials passed committee in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies May 31, O Globo reports.
In response to government attempts to approve laws regulating the press, the Brazilian National Association of Newspapers (ANJ in Portuguese) launched on May 26 a self-regulation program, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
Press groups in Bolivia criticized the “hasty” and “incomplete” reform of the Electoral Systems Law, which will continue to bar media outlets from reporting on or airing opinions about judicial elections, Los Tiempos reports.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and Brazil’s National Newspaper Association (ANJ) will hold the "International Forum on Freedom of Expression and the Judiciary” Friday, May 27 in Brasília. Participants will meet in the offices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to discuss the relationship between press law and press freedom in Brazil and abroad.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has said several existing and proposed laws in Bolivia could reduce press freedom in the country.
Bolivian media outlets are applauding President Evo Morales’s plans to change a law that severely restricted coverage of judiciary elections, Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP) reports via IFEX.
Fernando Collor de Mello, an impeached ex president and current senator, has once again ruined the government’s plan to quickly pass a law regulating access to classified documents, iG reports.
Keeping with the domestic and international trend, the UOL news site has released a set of guidelines for social media usage by its journalists, Liberdade Digital reports.
Nearly two years after the requirement to hold a media-related degree to practice journalism was declared unconstitutional by the Brazilian Supreme Court, bills supporting the reinstatement of the requirement are advancing in legislatures nationwide.
The votes still are being counted, but Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has claimed victory in a nationwide vote on 10 issues ranging from a bullfighting ban to the creation of a panel to regulate media content, CNN reports. Both the government and the opposition have suggested that there were irregularities during in the Saturday, May 7, vote, local media outlets report.