Senator to propose amendment to automatically make crimes against the press federal offenses

Brazil—Senator Roberto Cabalcanti (PRB-Paraiba) in the next few days plans to present a bill for amendment of the Constitution seeking to make attempts upon the lives of journalists while they are carrying out their work to automatically come under federal jurisdiction. In a speech before the Federal Senate on May 26 he came out in favor of this proposal, which had been aired by Regional Attorney General Janice Agostinho Barreto Ascari during the forum titled “Shortcomings and Gaps in Justice in Crimes Against the Press.” The event was organized by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in conjunction with the Brazilian Association of Investigative Reporting (Abraji) and held on May 18 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). In his speech the senator said that Brazil should follow the example of President Barack Obama of the United States, who recently enacted a piece of legislation called the Daniel Pearl Law. Under this law the list of those who violate freedom of the press will be divulged in the government’s annual reports on human rights violations. Cavalcanti also cited the details presented by Rio de Janeiro State Attorney Viviane Tavares Henriques of the case of Tim Lopes, murdered in 2002 by drug traffickers in a Rio shantytown. “The murderer although sentenced to 23 years in prison ended up being paroled under a semi-open system and once he was free he fled.” The senator declared that while Brazil is the country in Latin America with most press freedom there still occur “serious cases” of censorship and impunity prevails, and this in his view “is a disgrace.” On a final note, he mentioned the murder of reporter Paulo Brandão Cavalcanti Filho in Oaraíba in 1984. He was investigating wrongdoing in the state’s bidding process. Sen. Cavalcanti said the crime was committed by four members of the military police and a colonel who was at the time government secretary of the Armed Forces. The case was only solved thanks to the determination of the then Justice Minister, Fernando Lyra. Even so, the fifth person charged has yet to be brought to trial. “And in memory of Paulo Brandão Cavalcanti Filho and of hundreds of other journalists, some of them more or less acting in anonymity, who were cruelly brought down amidst the incomparable task of investigating and bringing the facts to light, I shall dedicate all my energy to make Dr. Janice Ascari’s thesis a reality,” he declared.