Brazil

2016

  
A protester takes cover as police throw tear gas during protests in August over the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. Journalists have been caught in the crossfire of Brazil's political unrest. (AP/Andre Penner)

In Brazil, journalists face injury from violent protests and accusations of bias

Felipe Souza was covering an anti-government protest in São Paulo earlier this month when a line of riot police advanced toward him.

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Security patrol the venues for the Rio Olympics. Journalists covering the Games can report press freedom complaints to the International Olympic Committee. (AFP/David Gannon)

IOC offers some protection but press at Rio Games should be wary of security risks

When the Rio Olympics open on Friday, the thousands of journalists covering it will have the added security of knowing a formal mechanism has been put in place to let them report any press freedom violations that take place during the Games. The creation of the reporting mechanism follows years of advocacy with the International…

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A cell phone records President Dilma Rousseff as she reacts to the impeachment vote. Amid Brazil's political crisis, a cybercrime bill with troubling implications for press freedom is being proposed. (AFP/Christophe Simon)

Cybercrime proposals risk undermining Brazil’s progress in securing free and open Internet

Two years ago, Brazil passed Marco Civil da Internet, a landmark piece of Internet civil rights legislation that made the country an international reference in digital rights. But its legacy is under threat from a cybercrime proposal that could radically change key aspects of the framework and threaten free speech online.

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Police cordon off the street where an officer was shot dead in 2012. Changes to how the Rio force investigates murders helped resolve the case of a journalist killed in 2013. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Amid rising violence in Brazil, convictions in journalists’ murders are cause for optimism

Justice delayed is justice denied, goes the legal maxim, and that has all too often been the case in Latin America. But the perseverance of lawyers and prosecutors in Brazil has resulted in a number of recent convictions in cases many thought had been buried or forgotten.

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2016