The Folha de S. Paulo newspaper has been an example of crusading journalism in Brazil for many decades. Its team of reporters and columnists are famous for the rambunctious and yet lucid way they challenge those in power. But that reputation has soured recently thanks to Folha’s heavy-handed response to two brothers who satirised the paper in a spoof web site, says a Financial Times report.
The details: [Link]
Lino and Mario Bocchini launched a site called Falha de S. Paulo in August to highlight what they believed was the paper’s bias against the ruling Workers’ Party during the presidential election campaign. Falha means failure in Portuguese and the front page logotype was almost identical to the paper’s own. The site printed pictures of the paper’s publisher as Darth Vader and allowed readers to fill in their own headlines.
But rather than laugh off or ignore the spoof, Brazil’s biggest selling newspaper got a injunction ordering the brothers to shut the site down, which they did. The paper is also suing them for damages. (A judge has yet to rule.) The paper stressed its issue was not with the site’s content but with the similar logotype. “We cannot tolerate breach of trademark,” it said in its filing.
That position has not gone down well with free speech advocates, with Reporters Without Borders slamming the paper for its “new form of censorship” and former culture minister Gilberto Gil asking why the paper didn’t sue singer Caetano Veloso, one of the first people to make the play on words.
Even Wikileaks figurehead Julian Assange weighed in, saying the Falha bloggers should be free to satirise because “the blog does not pretend to be the newspaper.” The controversy came shortly after Brazil’s Supreme Court struck down a ban on political comedy ahead of the election. The ban was roundly criticised as an attack on the country’s usually open political debate.
Lino Bocchini said the Falha de S. Paulo site was intended as no more than humorous criticism and point out he and his brother were not making money from it. “If you feel uncomfortable about whatever someone has written about you and/or your company in the internet, just make use of your “improper use of trademark” power card and bang: censorship plus financial indemnification for moral damages,” the Bocchini brothers said in an email appeal, adding:
Isn’t it ironic that a new kind of censorship is being brought to the world by the hands of those whose life and work are based on the principle of freedom of speech? Folha’s response is in keeping with its reputation as somewhat humorless. More important, however, is the damage done to its reputation as one of the progressive forces in Brazilian journalism.
