By The Committee to Protect Journalists
HAVANA TIMES – A decision by Brazil’s top court to recognize the judicial harassment of journalists and to introduce procedures to help prevent courts being misused to intimidate and silence the media is a welcome move towards safeguarding press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Friday.
On May 22, the Supreme Court unanimously recognized the judicial harassment of journalists and media outlets, which it defined as occurring when numerous lawsuits on the same issue are filed in different parts of the country, with the intention of embarrassing the defendant or making their defense difficult.
Once a legal action is recognized as a case of judicial harassment compromising freedom of expression, the defendant can request that all of the lawsuits be aggregated into one and judged within the defendant’s city of residence, the court said. It also ruled that journalists and media outlets can only be found liable in civil c