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 During a recent public hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States (OAS), in Washington, DC, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI) called on the commission to consider the laws and judicial practices that violate freedom of expression in Brazil.
ABRAJI was joined in the effort by the freedom of expression international organization Article 19 and the Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil). They criticized particularly the abusive use of judicial lawsuits against the media, journalists and human rights defenders.
"Article 19, Cejil and ABRAJI are deeply preoccupied with the use of judicial measures that cause illegitimate restrictions to freedom of expression and inhibit the free flow of information and open debate on public interest issues. We call on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to conduct a review of all issues presented during the hearing to assess their effects on human rights defenders and social communicators," said Article 19's Executive Director, Agnès Callamard.
Some of the problems include a weak legal framework; the excessive and coordinated use of civil defamation lawsuits; the high amount of lawsuits presented by public agents; the disproportional value of the indemnifications; the use of provisional injunctions preventing the publication of information prior to any publication, which may amount to prior censorship; and other indirect restrictions to freedom of expression.
There were reported specific cases and statistics were presented on the abusive use of lawsuits against journalists and human rights defenders in Brazil.
From 2005 to 2007, 53 cases of civil defamation lawsuits against the media reached the Superior Court of Justice. In 37.6% of these cases, the plaintiffs were public officials.
At the São Paulo State Court of Justice, 93 cases were presented between October and December 2007, and 47.4% of the lawsuits were filed by state agents.
The organizations also highlighted a strategy used by members of some groups in Brazil which consists of filing a wave of coordinated lawsuits in various parts of the country against one single journalist or media outlet, with the clear intention of silencing and intimidating these professionals with the excessive volume of cases. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has just done that against Brazil's largest newspaper, the Folha de S. Paulo.
Representatives of the Brazilian State and the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) participated in the hearing. They supported the current system of reparation for moral damages and the criminal treatment regarding defamatory statements.
According to them, the abuses mentioned in the document are exceptions, and not the rule. They also stated that the preoccupations expressed by Article 19, Cejil and ABRAJI do not result in intimidation or self-censorship.
The Inter-American Commission expressed preoccupation with the possibility of prior censorship through provisional injunctions, and asked the Brazilian State for more information regarding their use, as well as procedures and deadlines for review.
Commissioner Florentin Melendez mentioned that States should find a "rational balance" when there is a conflict between fundamental rights, and requested that the Brazilian State provide information on the measures taken to guarantee that this balance is reached within specific cases.
In their report, ABRAJI, Article 19 and Cejil recommended to the Brazilian State:
- A review of the legislation on freedom of expression with the purpose of aligning it to international patterns in the area;
- The adoption of clear, objective patterns for measuring the damages and deciding on the value of indemnifications; and
- The adoption of reparation measures which do not result in illegitimate restrictions on freedom of expression.
- Regarding the waves of lawsuits against journalists, the three organizations fully recognize the right of citizens to judicial reparations in cases where they have been defamed. However, the wave of coordinated lawsuits against one individual is not acceptable. The organizations recommend that the Brazilian State considers the adoption of such measures as allowing a unique centralized judgment when several lawsuits are filed by members of a given group.
The organizations also recommended to the Inter-American Commission that it conducts a review of all issues presented during the hearing to assess whether the current practices are in accordance with international human rights principles, and evaluate the effects that the mentioned practices may exert on human rights defenders and social communicators.
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The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
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On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
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right to burn the flag
tell a goverment offical they are a bunch of crooks
insult the country of brasil
with out fear fine or going to jail when printed
THEY DO IT HERE IN THE US EVEN WHEN THER ARE HERE ILLEGAL
so what is rong with the truth
LULA