Brazil's Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the expulsion of a New York Times correspondent who wrote an article that offended the president by calling him a heavy drinker.
The decision means Times correspondent Larry Rohter will be allowed to stay until the court decides if the government's cancelation of his visa was constitutional.
Communications Minister Luiz Gushiken said it would be up to the attorney general to decide on a government appeal of the Supreme Court ruling.
"This is a country ruled by law. If there is room to appeal, it is up to the attorney general," he said during a meeting with foreign correspondents.
Rohter's whereabouts were not known. His visa was canceled on Tuesday and he was given eight days to leave the country.
The New York Times applauded the court's decision.
"We are pleased with the judge's decision, which came in response to an action filed by a Brazilian senator," spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said. "We are hopeful that Mr. Rohter's right to retain his visa will be upheld and we look forward to having this matter resolved quickly through the appropriate institutional channels."
Mathis has said the Times considered the report accurate.
Also on Thursday, a group of senators in the governing coalition said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would reconsider canceling the reporter's visa if the newspaper retracted the article alleging the president drank too much.
The government canceled Rohter's visa after he wrote a lengthy article that said Silva's alcohol consumption had become a national concern.
"If the newspaper or the journalist publishes a retraction or correction, he is inclined to do it [reconsider the visa suspension]. If he doesn't do this, the decision stands," Senator Aloisio Mercadante said after meeting with Silva.
Former president Jose Sarney, now president of the senate, said Silva was "inclined to resolve this impasse ... politics is the art of dialogue and calming conflicts."
Presidential spokesman Andre Singer said in an article published Thursday in the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo that Rohter's visa was revoked because of the "indifference" of the Times in publishing the article.
He added that a letter to the paper from Brazilian ambassador Roberto Abdenur was an attempt to call attention to the "gravity of the error of having published a text that was incompatible with a serious publication."
"One would hope," wrote Singer, "that once it had perceived the error committed, the newspaper would have published a retraction to repair the damage inflicted. This retraction would have protected us from future attacks on the honor of the president and the country."
Singer said that "what is at stake is not the freedom of the press, but rather the necessary responsibility of the use of a powerful instrument like disclosure of information by a vehicle with international scope."
Former Rio de Janeiro state governor Leonel Brizola, the main source for the Times article, reaffirmed his claim that Silva drank too much during the 1998 presidential campaign when Brizola was Silva's running mate.
Brizola said he only told Rohter "what everyone already knows."
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