Brazil ensures net neutrality

After years of discussion and six months being discussed as an urgent subject in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, the set of laws regulating the internet (known as the civil landmark of internet) was approved this Tuesday. The law still has to be approved by the senate, where the government has a more comfortable position. Its approval means the president was able to control the allies rebellion and also puts Brazil on the map of an international discussion over the issue of network neutrality (that has been opposing Internet Service Providers, as the Telecom companies, and Internet Companies, such as Google).

Activists celebrate the approval of the internet law
that ensures net neutrality in Brazil

Folha de S. Paulo front page today was about the law passing. The newspaper said it puts Brazil in the vanguard of the internet, calling the law a "constitution" of the internet. It mentions, though, that the text changed after the lobby of Google to remove the determination to nationalize data centers for all the business conducted in Brazil  -- which would impose that all virtual services had a local server in Brazil. This demand was not on the original project and was put in the text after the NSA scandal broke the news. It was supposed a political statement from Brazil, against the American surveillance.

O Globo said the law puts Brazil in the vanguard of the internet. The newspaper front page, though gave more space to the scandal on Petrobras, which just had one of its former directors, Paulo Roberto Costa, arrested because of a overpriced purchase of a refinery in Pasadena. The president of Petrobras, Maria das Graças Foster gave an exclusive interview for O Globo and stated it will investigate thoroughly the issue.

On the economic ground both newspapers also mentioned the reaction after Brazil had its national rating cut by Standard & Poor's. Contrarily to what might be expected the stock market and the currency reacted positively, because the market have already taken into account such measure from the rating agency.

Finally to complete the subjects covered in the media last week, the proximity of the 50 years of the military coup in Brazil motivated a series os special reports on the main media. Folha de S. Paulo again made a multimedia rich, Snowfall-like, special report on the military dictatorship, which is very interesting. The newspaper covers the whole process that led to the coup, trying also to put in context the role of the Brazilian left at that time, which was also fighting for its own revolution. The story also pointed out to the unsettled case of the amnesty to military torturers and brings the transcriptions of the US ambassador and presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both supporting the military coup. O Globo is publishing during this week a series of stories about the coup.

Story about dictatorship crimes and photo on this year's protests are the main winners of the ExxonMobil Journalism Prize

Today the results of one of the most traditional journalism prizes in Brazil was released, the "Prêmio Esso", sponsored by ExxonMobil. The main news story prize was sent to the story about the secret files of the DOI-CODI (the department responsible for repressing people opposing the dictatorship in Brazil, that lasted from 1964 until 1985). The news story came in a very important moment in Brazil when the country is currently analyzing crimes committed during the tough period through the works of the Truth Commission (Comissão da Verdade). It worth mentioning that president Dilma herself is a victim of the dictatorship, having been tortured and arrested during the period.

Concerning that matter, the Truth Commission started today the process of exhumation of the body of former president João Goulart. Recent documents showed that the president (the last of the democratic period that preceded the dictatorship of 1964) was constantly monitored by the military. For those reasons, Goulart’s family asked in 2007 for an investigation to see if his premature death in 1976 (at the age of 57 years) supposedly from a heart attack was actually caused by poisoning.

The Prêmio Esso also recognized the picture (above) from Victor Dragonetti Tavares, that was the first one that actually put the mid year protests on the cover of the major Brazilian newspapers. The image shows a wounded cop trying to control a protester while defending himself from the crowd. The interesting thing about this picture is that it preceded the major repressing action from the police that ended with several protesters wounded. I remember clearly seeing editorials from major newspapers (I don’t recall now whether it was Folha de S. Paulo or O Estado de S. Paulo) actually calling for more police action on the protests that at that time were causing major traffic jams in São Paulo.

After that picture the police acted, but disproportionally, and images of ordinary people wounded gained the social networks and spread the protests concentrated in São Paulo and Rio to the whole country. This triggered a support for protesters that led to the government response and the reduction of the public transport fare (that were the main reasons for the initial protests).

Both stories are in the core of Brazil’s media attention right now. Today the main subject being analyzed by the press is the judgment of Mensalão (the corruption scheme denounced in 2006 during the 1st term of president Lula, that basically consisted in the purchase of congressmen votes) that involves several of the Worker’s Party (PT) important members.The corruption is clearly one of the motives of the protests. So far the news is that the supreme court maintained what was ruled before and is asking for the immediate arrest of several of the 27 convicted persons, but I’ll wait to see tomorrow’s newspapers to write more about the subject.