After months of delay, the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill to reform the press law that the Senate approved in December 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports, citing local sources. The bill eliminates criminal penalties for defamation on issues of public interest involving officials, CPJ explains, except in cases when “real malice” is proven on the part of the journalist, Mirador Nacional says.
The bill’s approval comes only a month after Brazil struck down its 1967 Press Law and “supplements the rising trend of international legal opinion that journalists should not be jailed for criminal defamation,” CPJ says.
The new law calls for 3-18 months imprisonment for contempt, either for “real offense” or “open disobedience to the legitimate mandate of an official,” El País reports. But it exempts statements made of public interest, even if they relate to the conduct of public officials or persons whose activity has social relevance, La República says.
The bill was approved by the Senate in January and now moves to President Tabaré Vázquez. It emerged from a draft written by several civil society organizations and will replace the law in effect since 1989.
This congratulatory letter from the World Press Freedom Committee contains background.
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