BRAZIL

Press freedom was affected by numerous legal provisions and sentences against media outlets and journalists, who have had to contend with fines, censorship and physical attacks.
Most of the problems were acts of censorship by legal authorities such as those against the newspapers Zero Hora and Diário Gaúcho in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which were prevented by a court order from publishing a recorded conversation. The same measure was used to prevent the media from publicizing news about a judge in São Paulo who was accused of criminal practices.
On the other hand, the 16th Civil Branch of the Federal Court in São Paulo suspended nationwide the requirement of having a journalism degree to be included in the professional registry of the Labor Ministry. Acting Judge Carla Abrantkoski Rister said in her order that Law 972/69, issued during the military government, which requires this diploma, violates the Federal Constitution of 1988 which says, in Article 5, Paragraph 9 that "expressions of intellectual, artistic, scientific and communication activities shall be free of censorship or licensing."
The order was issued October 30, 2001, in a public civil action brought by the national prosecutor André de Carvalho Ramos, who is regional prosecutor of citizens' rights and whose task is to guarantee the protection of constitutional rights and social and collective interests. A request for advance protection means that an order is immediately valid until a later opinion is issued. According to the judge, requiring the diploma could cause damage that is irreparable or difficult to repair for journalists who work without being registered at the Labor Ministry, since they could be sued or their work could be restricted.
The Chamber of Deputies approved on February 26, in the second stage of the process, a proposed amendment to the Constitution allowing foreign investors to own up to 30 percent of total capital in communication companies, with the right to vote. The chamber's vote was 402 in favor, 23 against and 3 abstentions. The measures were passed in the first phase on December 11, with the support of opposition legislators, with 406 votes in favor and 23 abstentions.
To go into effect, a constitutional amendment must be approved twice in the Chamber of Deputies and twice in the Senate. Therefore, the proposal will go to the Senate. The sponsor in the Chamber, Deputy Enrique Alves of the PMDB of Rio Grande do Norte, says the voting could end in April. In addition to allowing foreign investment, the proposal authorizes newspapers and radio stations to incorporate. At present they can only be controlled by individuals.
Finally, the cases of journalists who were murdered in Brazil is unchanged. The IAPA's vice president of the Committee of Freedom of Press and Information and its Rapid Response Unit are still following the legal processes.
October 3, 2001. Seven journalists were held hostage for 48 hours by Terena Indians in Rondonópolis, 250 kilometers from the capital of the state of Mato Grosso. According to journalist Justina Fiori, a member of a committee of television and newspaper editors of the municipality, the Terenas used the journalists to attract the attention of the leaders of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform about the definition of a land concession to settle them on a farm in Rondonópolis.
October 5, 2001. A car belonging to TV Liberal, affiliated to Rede Globo television network in the state of Pará was shot at twice by bodyguards of former senator Jader Bárbalo (PMBD/PA). This occurred near the Rio Branco farm belonging to Jader in São Miguel do Guamá, 150 kilometers from Belém, capital of the state. The shots hit the front tires of a car that was carrying the filmmaker Júlio Augusto Noronha de Souza, reporter Jonas Campos and driver Jairos Lopes.
January 31, 2002. Photographers Daniel Barreto and Mastrangelo de Paula Reino of Tribuna Impressa of Ararquara, São Paulo state, were attacked while working. They were injured, threatened with death and their work materials and cameras were damaged.
The incident occurred in a restaurant where they had gone to take pictures at a lunch the director of government contracting had for representatives of companies that would submit bids for a garbage collecting contract.
October 31, 2001. Reporter Luciana Vieira de Sousa was barred from participating in the launching of the Citizen Consumer campaign "Procon and You," in the official residence of the governor of the Federal District, which is a public site. Although she had been personally invited by the director of Procon, Maria Dagmar de Freitas, the chief of the governor's Press Office, André Duda, refused to allow her to enter because she worked for Correio Braziliense.
November 13, 2001. Judge Régis de Oliveira Montenegro Barbosa of the municipal court of Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, suspended an injunction ordering the newspapers Zero Hora and Diario Gaúcho of the RBS group not to publish the content of a recorded conversation between journalists of Diario Gaúcho and Jairo Carneiro, former treasurer of the Workers Party. The Law Enforcement Investigating Committee of Congress has a copy of the tape.
The injunction was requested by Diógenes de Oliveira, president of the Clube de Seguros da Cidadania, and Daniel Verçosa Gonçalves, director of the Seguros do Clube da Cidadania. The two newspapers were informed of the injunction at 8 minutes after midnight on November 13 when some of their editions were being printed. Neither paper was publishing a transcript of the tape or any other information about its content.
January 23, 2002. Judge Adriana Borges de Carvalho, of a court in Pinheiros, São Paulo, approved an injunction preventing the media from reporting on the administrative process being conducted by a special unit to investigate Judge Renato Mehanna Khamis's alleged participation in criminal activities.
Trial court Judge Renato Siqueira de Pretto, of the First Civil Branch of Campinas, convicted the company Folha da Manhã Ltd., which publishes the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, to pay the equivalent of 2,000 monthly minimum wages in punitive damages to Judge Luiz Beethoven Giffoni Ferreira. On November 15, 2001, the newspapers said it would appeal. The order concerns an investigative report in 1998 and 1999 about an alleged relationship of Ferreira with irregular adoptions and drug and arms traffic.
Another civil case for punitive damages imposed by Judge Luiz Beethoven Giffoni Ferreira caused the mortgaging of the offices of Rede Globo in Marginal Pinheiros in São Paulo. On November 16, 2001, Judge Antonio Carlos Soares de Moura e Sedeh of the 6th Civil Branch of Jundiaí ordered a notary to register the mortgage in the name of Judge Giffoni Ferreira at the request of lawyer Laerte de França Silveira Ribeiro.
November 25, 1999. The newspaper Jornal Nacional published an article accusing the former juvenile court judge of Jundiaí of sending children abroad in exchange for money. The charges were never proven, not even by the Senate Investigating Committee. Giffoni Ferreira's defense estimates that Globo should pay the judge 5 million reals.
December 20, 2001. A court in Espiritu Santo approved an injunction ending restrictions imposed on journalist Maura Fraga, who had been sued for libel and defamation by federal Deputy Max Mauro (PTB/ES), former governor of the state. The journalist was sued because of seven articles she wrote in A Gazeta of Vitória, capital of the state, in 2000. Under the terms of an agreement she had to accept in order for the injunction to be suspended. Mauro is prohibited from leaving the state capital without a court's permission, frequenting bars or drinking alcoholic beverages for two years. She must appear before the judge once a month during that period.
The murder of Marcos Borges Ribeiro, owner of the newspaper O Independente of Rio Verde in Goiás state in his home on May 1, 1995, has not been solved. Ribeiro had published reports about human rights abuses by the police of Rio Verde and irregularities in the government. He was killed after he announced that police had threatened him and told him not to publish any more reports.
On October 31, 1996, the public prosecutor's office named police officers Gláucio dos Reis Santana and Joana D'Arc de Souza as the murderers. D'Arc is the wife of the city's police chief. Gláucio dos Reis Santana said he had committed the crime in legitimate self-defense.
Aristeu Guida da Silva, owner of the newspaper São Fidélis, in the northeastern part of Rio de Janeiro state, was killed May 12, 1995. Two men arrived on a motorcycle entered his house, killing him with seven shots. They took several documents connected to the reports the journalist was writing about the Municipal Council, the local legislative body.
The defendants are Carlos Marques de Pinho, Isael dos Santos Rosa and Vladimir Rainieri Pereira Sobrosa. Juarez Carlos Rodrigues Silva, another defendant, was killed in August of 1998. He was a member of the council and the main defendant in the murder of Aristeu Guida da Silva. He was jailed on April 30, 1997, but he was released under a habeas corpus order a month and a half later and the trial is proceeding.
On August 29, 1995, Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva, owner of Cachoeiras Jornal, of Cachoeiras de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro state, was killed with 14 shots at a traffic light in São Gonçalo. The investigation supports three hypotheses: revenge by police officers whom the newspaper was accusing of committing irregularities; an attack to prevent the newspaper from publicizing reports about the former mayor; or a crime by an old adversary, the owner of the competing newspaper. The journalist had published reports that caused military police officers to be jailed; he was ready to publish news that would compromise the administration of a former mayor; and had among his enemies a businessman from Cachoeiras de Macacu.
On August 28, 2001, the police announced that they would resume investigations which had been stopped for a year and a half. The acting head of the Rio de Janeiro Homicide Branch, Paulo Passos, said the death could be linked to the interests of competing newspapers which had lost a bid to publish advertising about the mayor's official functions.
On October 29, 1997, Edgar Lopes de Faria, anchor of a program on Radio FM Capital in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul state, was killed in that city. He was shot seven times with a 7.65 pistol and six times with a 12-gauge shotgun. The attack occurred shortly before the program "The People Speak," on which he had said he would disclose the names of those responsible for crimes he was investigating in the Dourados region, Mato Grosso do Sul state.
Francisco Augusto Tavela and João Batista Guedes were named as suspects. They were killed in November 1997 in Cuiabá in Mato Grosso state after they tried to kill police officer Roberto Gil de Almeida. The case was lodged before the public safety office of that state.
Ronaldo Santana de Araujo, anchor of a program on Rádio Jornal of Eunápolis, in the state of Bahía, was killed October 9, 1997. He had denounced drug traffickers and death squads in the region. Two unknown persons shot him at close range in the center of the city. The crime was witnessed by one of the journalist's three children who was accompanying him to the radio station when they were intercepted by two men on a motorcycle. One of them, described as short and bald, riding on the back seat, fired three shots at the journalist's chest and neck.
Judge Otaviano Andrade de Souza Sobrinho of the Criminal Branch of Eunápolis in Bahía state, agreed to hear the charge filed by prosecutor João Alves da Silva Neto against former mayor Paulo Ernesto Ribeiro da Silva, known as "Paulo Dapé," suspected of being the mastermind behind the crime. The charge also named Paulo Sérgio Mendes Lima, Maria José Ferreira de Souza, known as "Maria Sindoiá," Waldemir Batista de Oliveira ("Dudu") and Antonio Oliveira Santos ("Toninho da Caixa").
Manoel Leal de Oliveira, owner of the newspaper A Região, of Itabuna, Bahía state, was killed with six shots in that city on January 14, 1998. Leal had systematically denounced influential people in the region, including the mayor, for alleged irregularities. It is suspected that the crime was politically motivated. On September 20, 2001, Judge Marcos Antonio Bandeira ordered preventive detention for three defendants: Marcone Sarmento, Monzar Castro Brasil and Tomás Iraci Moisés Guedes.
On March 9, 1998, José Carlos Mesquita, a radio announcer and television anchor of channel Ouro Verde, of Ouro Preto do Oeste, 350 kilometers from Porto Velho, capital of Rondônia, was killed with three shots in front of his station. Since 1993, Mesquita had been anchoring the program "Open Space," on which he aired a series of controversial reports. On the last three programs he had reported on the city's taxi service, naming Eurico Rodrigues Chaves and Nivaldo (last name unknown). Defendants Valdivino Martins da Silva and Claudiomiro Chaves were found not guilty, and defendant Gerim Ferreira Lacerda died.
On August 16, 2001, Mário Coelho de Almeida Jr., editor of the newspaper A Verdade, of Magé, Baixada Fluminense, 60 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro, was shot to death as he arrived at his home at about 6 in the afternoon, one day before he was scheduled to testify in open court in a case brought against him by José Camilo Zito dos Santos and Narriman Zito, mayors of Duque de Caxias and Magé respectively.
On February 14, Manoel Daniel de Abreu Jr., a former military police sergeant, was arrested as a suspect in the murder of Mário Coelho Jr. The judge of Magé ordered preventive detention of the sergeant at the request of police officer Ricardo Hallax of the 65th police precinct of Magé after an anonymous report presented the day before.
The sergeant works as a bodyguard for the family of the mayor of Duque de Caxias, José Camilo Zito dos Santos. Until 1999, he worked for state legislator Andréia Zito, daughter of the mayor, and now he is responsible for protecting the first lady of the municipality of Belford Roxo, Maristela Corrêa Nazário, wife of Mayor Waldir Zito.
The newspaper was known for its reports of alleged irregularities committed by local politicians. In recent months Mayor Narriman Zito was mentioned in the reports. Among the alleged irregularities published in A Verdade, were election crimes, corruption and over billing for public works projects.