Proposal to license journalists in Brazil sparks outcry
A proposal to regulate who can work as a journalist in Brazil is alarming human rights groups and journalists - so much so that the organization that suggested the licensing requirements agreed Wednesday to seek nationwide public hearings on the issue.

Human rights groups, foreign and domestic news media and some members of the government have appealed to Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to withdraw support for a proposed National Journalism Board. Da Silva's government introduced the proposal to Congress at the request of the National Federation of Journalists, a group made up not so much of journalists as of unionized press officers for government agencies.

Da Silva's government, however, has refused to disown the proposal, and the president made it clear Wednesday that he still feels stung by a report in The New York Times earlier this year that he had a drinking problem.

"It's clear that, as a citizen, I can suffer intimately the presence of an injustice committed through whatever error in the press," he told the National Newspapers Association.

But da Silva, who tried to expel the correspondent who wrote The New York Times story before backing down, promised to oppose any restrictions on press freedoms. "The best recipe for the vigor of journalism is, without doubt, liberty," he said.

Free-press advocates are skeptical of his sincerity, amid comments by his chief policy strategist, Luiz Gushiken, that "nothing is absolute, not even freedom of the press."

The proposal was officially made by the National Federation of Journalists, which hypothetically represents the interests of some 100,000 journalists working in Brazil. But since most reporters don't belong to a trade association, the federation members are largely unionized government-communications staffers.

Five of the group's seven directors are members of da Silva's Workers' Party, and most of the directors aren't working journalists but current or former press secretaries.

Under the plan, the federation's directors would select the first journalism board. That board in return could require a journalism degree, and yank the credentials of journalists it deemed unethical.

Federation President Sergio Murillo de Andrade, a journalism professor, acknowledged that most of the directors are members of the ruling party, but said the idea behind a journalism board wasn't to restrict the work of reporters but to create minimum professional requirements.

Right now, "any person can join our profession, without graduating or any formation in journalism," Andrade said, suggesting that the proposal doesn't differ from the licensing of architects or real estate agents. "The idea of professionalization is to create quality and value for our profession."

No major news organization or journalist has backed the proposal.

Brazil's powerful media barons, independent lawmakers and the group Reporters Without Boundaries have warned that the plan smacks of a return to the authoritarian 1970s, when the country's military rulers clamped down on critics.

"Journalists don't need to be regulated; they are muckrakers by nature. They know what they want, and the readers and companies for whom they work are who regulates them," said Congressman Fernando Gabiera, an independent lawmaker from Rio de Janeiro who's also a noted journalist and author. "This is a giant mistake for the government. It sounds like something they have in Cuba or other socialist countries where the media is organized by the parties."

William Bonner, Brazil's top television anchor, slammed the proposal as "intimidation" in a rare expression of personal opinion. "Whatever organ that represents a threat to the freedom of information, whatever name it has, whatever origin it has, must be emphatically rejected," Bonner told the newsmagazine Veja.

Recognizing the controversy, federation President Andrade said Wednesday that the group now advocates public hearings on the issue, a position the government also supports.

"It is extremely important to get opinions from society, and opinions from people who would benefit from this board," Andrade said in an interview. "Not to have a debate about this would be authoritarian."

Chile's Pinochet Enters Hospital
Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was admitted to a military hospital Wednesday with "an acute respiratory condition," the hospital said.

The 88-year-old former ruler, who may be tried on charges stemming from human rights abuses during his 1973-90 dictatorship, suffers from diabetes, arthritis, has a pacemaker and has been diagnosed with a mild case of dementia.

Pinochet was admitted to the Santiago Military Hospital "affected by an acute respiratory condition and for evaluation of his diabetes" and he "will remain hospitalized until the solution of his respiratory condition," the hospital said in a brief statement.

A female army officer who identified herself only as Maj. Guajardo, delivered the communique to reporters and refused to elaborate on Pinochet's condition.

Pinochet's spokesman, retired Gen. Guillermo Garin, did not respond to several phone calls.

Pinochet, who also has suffered at least two falls at home, repeatedly has been treated at the hospital in the last few years for a series of conditions.

His poor health has so far spared him from trial in hundreds of criminal suits as the Supreme Court in 2002 pronounced him mentally and physically unfit to stand trial.

The possibilities of a trial reopened last month, however, when the same court stripped Pinochet of the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed as former president.

The court acted after lawyers filed yet another suit against Pinochet for the so-called Operation Condor, a plan implemented by the dictatorships that ruled South American countries in the 1970s to suppress dissent.

An interview granted by Pinochet to a Spanish language TV station in Miami last year played a key role in convincing the court to remove Pinochet's immunity.

In the interview, Pinochet appeared lucid and said he sees himself as "a good angel," and blamed the abuses under his regime in subordinates.

A decision on whether Pinochet will be tried has been delayed after his defense succeeded in having the judge in charge of the case removed at least temporarily. The Santiago Court of Appeals has now to decide which judge will handle the case.

Colorado-Based Company Shuts Down Peru Mine After Road Blockade, Protests
Newmont Mining Corp. curtailed work at a mine in Peru Wednesday after a two-week blockade of a road to the mine and thousands of workers protested in the streets over concerns of the effects of new mining operations on water supplies.
Blasting and hauling of ore from the Yanacocha Mine has stopped as some 10,000 workers protested in Cajamarca, Peru, about 350 miles north of Lima, company spokesman Doug Hock said.

Residents began blocking the road Sept. 2 after the company started exploratory drilling on the Cerro Quilish gold deposit, which sits in the same watershed as the village.

The mine is expected to produce about 21 percent of Denver-based Newmont's total gold production this year of 7.1 million ounces, company spokesman Doug Hock said.

Operations continued with workers and supplies being ferried to the mine by helicopter.

Hock said the company earlier this month agreed to voluntarily suspend drilling and agreed to talk with the protesters.

"We are not going to permit them to explore today or ever, for one simple, technically sound reason. This zone is very fragile," Ivan Salas, one of the protest leaders, told Radioprogramas radio in Peru.

The area is in the midst of a four-year drought.

Production will not be affected as gold will continue to be extracted from ore already in leach ponds, Hock said.