On Friday 15th of May, the Brazilian Congress launched an investigation into the giant state-run oil company Petrobras. The initiative was started by government leaders of the opposition PSDB party. They set up what Brazilians call a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI is the abbreviation in Portuguese) to scrutinize supposed irregularities in the company. Meanwhile, on […]
Guinea-Bissau President’s Assassination Sparks Alarm at Instability
Guinea-Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in the first hours of this morning, allegedly in an attack by renegade soldiers as he fled his home. The crime happened a few hours after his long term rival, the country’s army chief General Batista Tagme, was killed by a bomb blast, late on Sunday. Although the […]
Brazil’s Uncontacted Tribe Unleashes Enviro Controversy
Posted by Jose Murilo Junior Brazilian Indians were in the spotlight of world media this week and the local blogosphere has much to say about it. From the images of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, which were ‘leaked’ first in a blog that is now claiming attribution rights for its scoop, to the […]
New Oil in Brazil Unleashes a Gusher of Media Controversies
Twisted information about the discovery of what may possibly be the third largest oil field in the world turned into a hot issue on the Brazilian blogosphere this week. The trigger was a comment from the head of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency [ANP], Haroldo Lima, mentioning that the recently found Carioca [or Sugar Loaf] field in […]
Brazil: Blogs banned from the 2008 elections
by Paula Góes Brazil is warming up for local elections later this year, in October, when voters will go to the polls to choose their local government representatives. The Supreme Electoral Court [the TSE, the Portuguese acronym for Tribunal Superior Eleitoral] has just passed the regulations for voting, and again, the opportunity to better discuss […]