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Brazil government criticizes NY Times report
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-07 10:00 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time and the government eventually rescinded the order, which was widely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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