Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009americas: brazilcriminalization of speech can only apply in those exceptional circumstances whenthere is an obvious and direct threat of lawless violence.”Under provisions that remain in the country’s penal code, however, Brazilianjournalists could still be jailed for up to two years for criminal defamation.The law has been used to harass and intimidate critical journalists, CPJ researchfound.Civil defamation provisions have also been used to silence journalists. Thousandsof the lawsuits fill trial court dockets, filed by businessmen, politicians, andpublic officials who allege that critical journalists and outlets have offended theirhonor, CPJ research shows. Plaintiffs often file multiple suits on a single matterand seek disproportionately high damages as a way of straining the financial resourcesof their critics. The practice has become so common it is known as the“industry of compensation.”More alarming, though, are censorship orders issued by trial courts that barmedia defendants from covering important public issues while the lawsuits arepending. In one notable case, on July 31, Judge Dácio Vieira of the Federal DistrictCourt in Brasília barred the daily O Estado de São Paulo and its Web siteEstadão from publishing reports on a corruption scandal involving the family offormer Brazilian President José Sarney, according to local news reports. The casestemmed from a report on the allocation of federal contracts to relatives and closefriends of Sarney, who was chairman of the Senate in 2009. O Estado de São Paulowas the first outlet to report on Sarney’s alleged involvement in the scandal. Vieiraruled that O Estado de São Paulo would be fined 150,000 reals (US$87,000) forevery story published on the case. The judge said the ban would apply to othernews outlets seeking to republish the daily’s stories. The paper lost an appeal, butthe Sarney family dropped the case in December.On July 6, prominent journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto, editor of the Belémbasednewspaper Jornal Pessoal in the northern state of Pará, was found liablein a civil defamation suit and ordered to pay US$15,000 in damages—the equivalentof the paper’s revenue for a year and a half. The suit was brought by brothersRonaldo and Romulo Maiorana Jr., owners of the Organizações RômuloMaiorana media group, the biggest communication company in northern Brazil.The Maiorana brothers argued Pinto had damaged the family’s reputation with a2005 story on the media group’s economic power and influence. Members of theMaiorana family filed four other civil defamation suits against Pinto, a 2005 CPJInternational Press Freedom Award winner.The powerful and privileged filed other cases. Congressman Edmar Moreirafiled more than 44 suits against at least 38 journalists and 13 news outlets forreports on his fortune and his alleged involvement in official corruption. A courtin southeastern Espírito Santo state ordered the news Web site Século Diário totake down three stories on the alleged involvement of two state judges in a schemeto harass local lawyers. In São Paulo state, Adamantina Mayor José FranciscoFigueiredo Micheloni filed a suit against the local daily Jornal da Cidade based ona quote from a councilwoman that had offended him. A local businessman in northeasternFortaleza obtained an injunction barring O Povo media group—whichincludes a newspaper, radio stations, a TV station, and online services—fromreporting on his finances. The plaintiff alleged the news organization had violatedhis privacy, although O Povo said the same financial information was publiclyavailable online.Brazil ranked 13th on CPJ’s Impunity Index, a list of countries in whichjournalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Whilethe ranking reflected Brazil’s longstanding record of violence against the press,authorities have made recent progress in bringing perpetrators to justice.In May, one man was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison for participatingin the murder of Nicanor Linhares, the provocative host of a top-ratedradio show in the state of Ceará. Linhares was killed in June 2003 by two armedmen who stormed into his broadcast booth at Rádio Vale do Jaguaribe in the cityof Limoeiro do Norte. Charges were still pending in late year against the allegedmasterminds of the crime, a local politician and her spouse, a federal judge.In August, former police officers Odin Fernandes da Silva and Davi Liberatode Araújo were convicted and sentenced to 31 years in prison for being part ofthe militia that kidnapped and tortured two journalists and a driver working undercoverfor the Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Dia in the Rio slum Batan in 2008.The kidnappers beat the journalists and the driver repeatedly, gave them electricshocks, put plastic bags over their heads, and threatened to kill them, they said.The team was released seven hours later.Despite the convictions, media workers continued to be targets of violenceand obstruction, especially in the country’s interior. On June 27, in northernAmazonas, Transportation Minister Alfredo Nascimento and his son allegedlyassaulted Ronaldo Lázaro Tiradentes, a reporter for Tiradentes Radio and Television,in the Manaus Airport parking lot, local news reports said. The journalist,who filmed parts of the episode with his cell phone, filed a complaint with thefederal police.On July 16, military police tried to prevent journalists from covering a protestoutside the home of Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Yeda Crusius in the state capital,Porto Alegre. The governor was under investigation in connection with the allegedmisappropriation of more than US$24 million. Police detained freelancephotographer Antônio Carlos Argemi when he tried to step out of a restrictedarea to take pictures. Argemi was released without charge.In August, Carlos Baía, director of the Barcarena-based Metropolitana Radio7 27 3