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Brazil government criticizes NY Times report Less than four months after causing an uproar by almost expelling a New York Times reporter, the Brazilian government criticized the U.S. newspaper on Monday for a report on a controversial proposal to oversee the country's journalists.
Published on Monday and written by one of the newspaper's South American correspondents, Larry Rohter, the article describes how a government bill to create a national journalism council to "orient, discipline and monitor" reporters has sparked increasing criticism.
The government ordered Rohter expelled from Brazil in May after he wrote an article saying Brazilians were concerned President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's drinking was impeding his ability to govern.
Rohter, a veteran reporter in Latin America, was out of the country at the time and the government eventually rescinded the order, which was widely criticized by local journalists and international media groups.
On Monday, the government released a letter addressed to The New York Times in which it criticized Rohter and his article on the proposed council.
It denied the proposal was Lula's, as described in the article, and critiqued Rohter's reporting.
"Mr. Rohter, in truth, appears to have not listened to anyone when writing his story, as is the habit with his reports: He limited himself to reproducing statements by people opposed to the project already published in the Brazilian press," said the letter, which was written in Portuguese and signed by the government's press secretary, Ricardo Kotscho.
It said the idea to form the council belonged to the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) and that the actual bill had been drawn up by the Labor Ministry.
The government has said the council will act in a manner similar to associations for professions like medicine or law.
Nevertheless, a number of leading newspapers and even government allies have criticized the bill.
Last month, Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo daily called the bill the latest sign of Lula's "Stalinist twitch," and its editorial director, Octavio Frias Filho, said Fenaj was historically linked to Lula's Workers' Party.
Other newspapers have also questioned whether Fenaj truly represents the media and said the move is a throwback to Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Newspapers outside Brazil have also run stories relating the controversy.
No one was immediately available at The New York Times' corporate communications department for comment. |
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