We Broke The Censorship Fever In Brazil

The war is not over, but we're winning key battles

On the left is today’s editorial in the Folha de São Paulo. The headline reads, “The Censorship By [Supreme Court Justice] Moraes Must End.”

I try to be professional. I try to be empathic. And I try to be respectful, particularly when in a foreign country.

But toward the end of a telephone interview with two Brazilian reporters from the Estado de São Paulo, one of the country’s largest newspapers, I was practically shouting. Fine — I was shouting. I had had it. They had found three different ways to ask me the same question.

“But are you really saying,” they asked, “that election disinformation should be legal?”

My answer was always the same. “Of course it should be legal! If you allow the government to censor criticisms of elections, how would anyone ever know if an election is actually stolen?”

My frustration with the Brazilian media had many causes.