(IPYS/IFEX) – On 14 December 2006, Judge Richard Fernando Silva ordered the arrest of reporter Silvério Netto, who was interviewing him, in the town of Pará de Minas, in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. Netto was working on an article for the community-based radio station Total FM’s webpage, BR Supernews, about a report […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 14 December 2006, Judge Richard Fernando Silva ordered the arrest of reporter Silvério Netto, who was interviewing him, in the town of Pará de Minas, in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. Netto was working on an article for the community-based radio station Total FM’s webpage, BR Supernews, about a report presented by the Small Claims Court. The judge asked the journalist about his professional training; the reporter replied that he did not have a degree. The judge ended the interview and ordered Netto to be arrested. Netto was taken to a police station and released after he gave a statement.
The hearing for the case has been set for 26 February.
The requirement of possession of a degree is a dreadful remnant of Brazil’s military dictatorship, when two supreme decrees made it necessary to have a university degree in order to practise journalism. The obligatory membership in the journalists’ college, however, was suspended by the minister of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Gilmar Mendes, on 16 November 2006.
This alert was prepared by IPYS with information provided by the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association (Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo, ABRAJI).
