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BRAZIL The federal government is planning
to send to Congress a bill to modify legislation on the tapping of telephone
conversations in Brazil that includes penalties of up to five years in prison
and a fine for those journalists who share the content of those recordings even
when they have been authorized by the courts. The Law on Telephone Tapping,
which amends the earlier law with a similar objective, is being justified by
the government as a way to prevent abuses and misuse. Célio Alves de Souza, a former military soldier who in June 2005 was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison for his involvement in the murder of media executive Domingos Sávio Brandão Lima Júnior, escaped from Pascoal Ramos Prison on July 24, 2005. To date, investigations into the involvement of public employees in the escape have not concluded and the prisoner remains at large. Previously, another suspect for the same murder had escaped from the same prison under similar circumstances, but was captured. In the case of Manoel Leal de Oliveira, murdered on January 14, 1998 in Itabuna, Bahía, police were able to identify the perpetrators, but not the masterminds. One of the accused, Officer Mozart Brasil, was convicted, but he is appealing the verdict and while awaiting a decision he remains free and is going about his work as usual under the protection of habeas corpus. The other defendant, Marcote Sarmento, was acquitted, but Leal’s relatives complained to A Região newspaper that the judges had been tampered with. Other incidents adversely affecting press freedom during this period: On September 12, 2005, the Boletín Informativo de la Policía Civil (Police News Bulletin) included a note in which it prohibited police officers and military officials from giving interviews. According to the police, their intention was not to censor their employees, but to prevent taped phone conversations with suspects from being released to the public. In September 2005, a fire destroyed 80 percent of the headquarters of Diário de Marília and Diário FM and Dirceu AM radio stations, of the CMN (Central Marília Notícias) Group in São Paulo. On January 25, 2006, Bruno Gaudêncio Coércio, Amarildo Barbosa, and Amauri Delábio Campoy, were sentenced to 12 years in prison for planning and using excessive violence by attacking Diário and Diário FM and Dirceu AM radio stations. On October 26, 2005, in Teresina (State of Piauí) the courts ordered the arrest of journalist José de Arimatéia Azevedo, director and editorialist for Portal AZ, an Internet portal, whose closure was ordered by the court. In the arrest warrant, the judge described comments by the director of Portal AZ about attorney Audrey Martins Magalhães as obscene and sexist, and based the arrest on a 1967 law on press crimes. On October 29, the president of the Superior Court of Justice, Edson Vidigal, accepted the habeas corpus petition filed by the journalist and ordered his release, finding that Azevedo’s arrest violated society’s right to be informed. On November 22, 2005, Attorney General Bruno Acioly sent e-mails to his colleagues stating his intention to request that the courts clear the way for four journalists’ phone calls to be tapped. According to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, in June, Acioly and his colleague Raquel Branquinho asked the 10th Circuit Court of Justice in Brasilia to lift the telephone privacy. Judge Maria de Fátima de Paula Pessoa Costa decided that there was no basis to consider the request. Despite the fact that Acioly did not reveal names, the newspaper believed that Expedito Filho, Policarpo Júnior, and Alexandre Oltramari could be among the journalists whose names appeared on his request. The four reporters were not identified. In 1999, these journalists wrote articles in Veja magazine on bankers that had used privileged information on changes in exchange rate policies. Acioly, who investigated these accusations for the Attorney General, wanted to force the journalists to reveal their sources that proved the illegal acts. On November 22, 2005, O Dia newspaper had to reinforce security at its offices when management found out through “Disque-Denúncia” (Dial-Complaint), a toll-free number to make complaints, that drug traffickers from Morro da Providência, located in downtown Rio de Janeiro, were planning a grenade attack on the offices in retaliation for a series of articles published by the newspaper on trafficking in that neighborhood since last September. In November 2005, 19 lawsuits against the editor of Jornal Pessoal prevented reporter Lúcio Flavio Pinto from traveling to Pará to receive the International Press Freedom Award given by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Juliana da Cunha Pinto, the journalist’s daughter, had to travel to New York to receive the award on her father’s behalf. On November 24, reporter Helen Michelet, a contributor to A Estância newspaper and press adviser for an opposition politician in Guaruja, São Paulo, was attacked during a public hearing led by Mayor Farid Madi, who refused to respond to Michelet’s questions and insulted her and the newspaper. Two men grabbed her by the arms and kicked her legs. The incident was photographed by a journalist from Clarín, another local newspaper. The mayor’s press adviser alleged that the assailants were civilians and that the mayor did not answer Michelet’s questions because she worked for the opposition. The municipal civil defense coordinator, Elvio José da Silva, was identified by police as one of the individuals involved in the assault. On December 16, photographers Eduardo Alves and Sérgio Marques, director of Comércio da Franca newspaper, in Franca, São Paulo, were arrested by police after arguing with them about the photographer’s right to cover police activity in the main plaza of the city. In December 2005, the Justice Department in São Paulo banned Folha Online from publishing reports on the corporate espionage trial in which Brasil Telecom is charged with hiring Kroll to spy on its competitor, Telecom Itália. A Folha has appealed the decision. On January 6, 2006, photographer Viviane Pinheiro de Azevedo, from Diário do Pará, was covering the arrest of suspects for money laundering and fraud when she was shoved three times by attorney Roberto Santos Araújo. All her colleagues present witnessed the assault and Record Pará broadcast the confrontation. On March 14, the prosecutor of Camaquã, Rudimar de Freitas Rosales, subpoenaed three journalists from Correio do Povo to testify on the invasion of the headquarters of businessman Aracruz Celulosa in Barra do Ribeiro, when some 2,000 female members of the Landless Workers Movement ransacked the company’s research laboratory. The journalists were treated like criminals and pressured to reveal their sources on the Aracruz incident to police. The National Association of Magazine Publishers (ANER) expressed its concern on the scope of the text of Regulations #83 and 84 (from November 16, 2005) of the National Health Agency (Anvisa). The regulations broadened restrictions on advertising for products such as beverages and medicines. ANER stated that “any form
of prohibition in reporting — whether it be through advertising or in
news stories — prevents people from being informed and making choices
and jeopardizes their fundamental rights as citizens: freedom of expression
and of the press.” ANER also reiterated its concern about various regulations
imposed on the media, including regulations on news, by Anvisa in the last six
months.
Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association. All rights reserved. . |
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