Latin America takes steps against criminal defamation
In an encouraging development, three courts in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Chile have recently followed the growing regional consensus against criminal defamation by dismissing criminal penalties against journalists accused of libel and slander.The newsweekly magazine Semana reported that a piece written by Alfredo Molano, at left, in the op-ed pages of the Bogota-based daily El Espectador in February 2007 described how…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Brazil
Top Developments• Judges in defamation cases issue sweeping censorship orders.• Ex-police officers convicted in abduction, torture of O Dia journalists. Key Statistic 44: Defamation lawsuits filed by a single congressman. Complaints target dozens of journalists for critical coverage. In a major advance for press freedom, Brazil’s highest court struck down a repressive 1967 law that criminalized broad…
Media owner shot to death in northeastern Brazil
New York, December 15, 2009—Unidentified assailants shot and killed Brazilian media owner and radio host José Givonaldo Vieira on Monday morning in northeastern Pernambuco state, according to local news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into Vieira’s killing and to promptly bring to justice all…
CPJ dismayed by decision of Brazilian court
We issued the following statement today in response to yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil’s highest court, rejecting an appeal from the daily O Estado de São Paulo and its Web site Estadão in a case of censorship. In July, a regional court barred both outlets from publishing reports on a corruption scandal…
U.S. reporter faces ‘insult’ suit in Brazil air crash aftermath
New York, September 29, 2009—U.S. freelance journalist Joe Sharkey, who covered a 2006 plane crash in Brazil in which he was a passenger, faces an onerous civil defamation suit for comments he said were wrongly attributed to him. On the third anniversary of the accident, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Brazilian judicial authorities…
Judge orders censorship in Brazilian corruption case
On July 31, 2009, Judge Dácio Vieira of the Federal District Court in Brasilia banned the Brazilian daily O Estado de S. Paulo and its Web site Estadão from publishing reports on an corruption scandal involving the family of former Brazilian President José Sarney, according to local news reports.
Brazilian journalist sentenced on defamation charges
New York, July 10, 2009–A judge in the northern state of Pará ordered prominent Brazilian journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto, at left, on Monday to pay US$15,000 in damages in a civil libel suit. The decision is part of a systematic pattern of legal harassment against Pinto, who faces more than 10 lawsuits from powerful plaintiffs,…
CPJ hails conviction in 2003 journalist murder in Brazil
New York, May 28, 2009–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Wednesday’s conviction in the June 2003 murder of Brazilian journalist Nicanor Linhares but calls on the authorities to ensure that all those involved in the killing of the radio host are brought to justice.