Journalism and Public Information in Brazil
Fernando Rodrigues, Nieman Fellow
Brazil has been off of the radar in developed countries for quite awhile, but it has been a thriving democracy since 1985. The country has fixed its economy and the media is enhancing its role in society. Internet and public information have a lot to do with it.
Journalist Fernando Rodrigues assembled a database with some 25,000 records of Brazilian politicians showing electoral information and personal data –including the list of personal assets of each politician who run for office in the three past general elections in Brazil (1998, 2002 and 2006). In 2006, the day the website was last updated, it drew 1,000,000 viewers. It is a free access website and voters can check whether a particular politician has increased his or her patrimony in a compatible way with the declared income. The database has also been an endless source of news stories for media outlets all over Brazil.
Collecting all that information was not an easy task, since Brazil does not have a Freedom of Information Act. Mr. Rodrigues also works with the National Forum of Right of Access to Public Information, a new advocacy group in favor of a FoIA for Brazil. The Forum teaches people how to require public information from government agencies despite that there is no clear legislation about it.
About Fernando
Fernando Rodrigues, 44, is a Brazilian journalist currently as an International Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. In Brazil, he has been for the past 20 years with the newspaper “Folha de S.Paulo” –the daily paper with largest circulation in the country.
At “Folha”, Mr. Rodrigues has been Economics Editor (in São Paulo) and foreign correspondent in New York, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. Before coming to Cambridge last August, he was based in Brasília as both a political columnist for the paper’s op-ed page and a feature reporter.
In 2000, Mr. Rodrigues started a political web site for the news portal UOL. In 2002 he launched the project “Políticos do Brasil” (Politicians from Brasil), with data about Brazilian politicians (electoral information, personal data and list of personal assets). In 2006 (election year in Brazil), the web site www.politicosdobrasil.com.br presented an updated version with some 25,000 records, encompassing virtually all major Brazilian politicians.
Mr. Rodrigues has won several journalism awards in Brazil and abroad. His last book, “Políticos do Brasil”, was awarded the best 2006 journalistic book in Brazil.
Mr. Rodrigues has an MA in International Journalism from the City University of London. He also serves as vice-president for ABRAJI (Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism).
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