Lawmakers are considering a proposal by the president to regulate journalism through a council that could strip media workers of their credentials. Critics have blasted the measure as an attack on press freedom.
Earlier this month, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent Congress a proposal to create a Federal Journalism Council. According to the draft legislation, the council would "orient, discipline and oversee the practice of the journalistic profession."
The council's duties would include punishing journalists found to have committed "irregularities" with penalties ranging from censure to suspension and revocation of professional credentials. To work legally as a journalist in Brazil, a person must have a degree in journalism and professional accreditation.
"False and badly investigated information can provoke moral lynchings, destroy lives, provoke bankruptcies, among other serious damage done to institutions and people," Labor Minister Ricardo Berzoni said when the law was sent to Congress.
However, a leading news magazine, Veja, on Sunday called the proposed law the most serious attack on press freedom since the country's 1964-85 military dictatorship.
The magazine included quotes from prominent lawmakers, journalists, artists, professors and the head of non-governmental organizations all criticizing the measure.
"The council reserves for itself the prerogative to resolve `the cases not covered by law' with punishments that can include revoking professional credentials," Veja quoted William Bonner, the anchorman of Brazil's most-watched news program. "This isn't intimidating?"
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