History of Censorship in Brazil

DESCRIPTION: Largest country in South America.

SIGNIFICANCE: As with many of its South American neighbors, Brazil has experienced a gradual change in censorship since the late 1970s.

Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese, starting in the middle of the sixteenth century. As was typical of the era, education, press, and politics were dominated by the Roman Catholic Church and the Portuguese state. This pattern continued after Brazil gained independence in 1822. Over the next 140 years, by fits and starts, Brazilians in general, and the media in particular, came to enjoy a substantial amount of freedom, except in the fields of entertainment. The role of the Catholic Church in Brazilian society, and its moral code, explains governmental actions in this area.

The first law to censor films was passed in 1932, followed by the creation of the Department of Press and Propaganda in 1939 (which required reservation of a certain amount of exhibition time for Brazilian produced films). The Public Entertainment and Censorship Service was created in 1946, with the power to prohibit the exhibition of any film “offensive to public decency,” depicting or encouraging criminal acts or evil intent, and with the additional power to cut or place age restrictions on all films (a practice that continued into the 1980s).

The period of relative improvement in freedom of speech was interrupted by the military coup of 1964. This takeover, which military leaders called a “revolution” against communism, quickly led to severe restrictions on the press, on free speech, on entertainment, in education (supposed leftists were purged from university faculties), and on political opposition. All speech regarded as encouraging war or subversion, undermining national security or confidence in national institutions was strictly forbidden. Live broadcasts on television (except news programs) were outlawed. All books had to be submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs for review twenty days before publication, and all magazines had to be submitted for review forty-eight hours before publication. University curricula and courses were examined for ideological acceptability.

Starting in the 1970s, censorship was relaxed, allowing criticism of policies and measures, though not of the revolution itself or any speech labeled “subversive” or detrimental to national security. Abertura, or “opening,” was the name for the policy of liberalization that gained momentum starting in 1979, as before-the-fact censorship was suspended. Opposition parties were allowed to organize, and dissidents were allowed to return from exile. In March 1985, all constraints on political speech were removed, and virtually all forms of media control were banned under the 1988 Constitution. In 1992, President Fernando Collor de Mello was forced to resign, largely due to pressure brought to bear by media investigations, which had proceeded despite significant governmental pressure to ease off.

In 2009, a dictatorship-era law permitting censorship was finally repealed, and the following year, political satire and ridicule during electoral campaigns was decriminalized. But between 2003 and 2015, subjects of unauthorized biographies were allowed to stop publication of the books or to demand their removal from stores if they felt the text represented an invasion of their privacy or impugned their honor. Moreover, subjects could also restrict the use of their likeness. Some feared the law could be used not only against books about celebrities, but to block news publications and broadcasts. The Supreme Court struck it down in 2015. Despite this, the courts continue to be used to hamper the publication or dissemination of content that powerful business and political interests find objectionable. In 2025, the Supreme Court introduced measures intended to limit judicial harassment lawsuits against journalists, responding to concerns that repeated legal actions were being used to discourage investigative reporting.

In 2012, a freedom-of-information law was enacted, and two years later, the Internet Bill of Rights (Marco Civil da Internet) was passed, granting rights to privacy and freedom of expression. Despite these advances, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs reports that Brazilian bloggers face harassment. Reporters Without Borders ranked Brazil 82nd out of 180 countries for freedom of the press in 2024. In June 2025, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court ruled that digital platforms could be held liable for certain illegal user-generated content even without a prior court order, marking a significant shift in the country’s approach to online speech regulation. The organization found in 2014 that the country’s national media are owned and controlled by only ten families, that regional media outlets tend to belong to politicians, and that organized crime operations threaten the safety of those who report on illegal activities, all of which function as de facto censorship of the media. The government led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which took office in 2023, has worked to restore normal relations between the media and state agencies.

Violence has also continued—conducted largely by private groups tolerated by the government and sometimes by the military police themselves—against certain groups, such as environmentalists in the Amazon rain forest, union organizations, the homeless, and reporters covering economic protests in 2013 and of government crackdowns on the favelas (slums) around Rio de Janeiro ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. Despite a rise in the country’s ranking for freedom of the press, journalists continue to face online harassment and even violence, with records indicating violence against journalists is on the rise. In 2022, at least three murders in the country were directly linked to journalism, including the killing of a British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon while investigating environmental crimes.

Bibliography

“Americas: Media under Threat from Violence.” World Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Barchfield, Jenny. “Brazil’s Top Court Strikes Down Censoring Biography Law.” Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media, 11 June 2015, www.smh.com.au/world/brazils-top-court-strikes-down-censoring-biography-law-20150611-ghlt9m.html. Accessed 9 May 2026.

“Brazil: Freedom in the World 2025.” Freedom House, 2025, freedomhouse.org/country/brazil/freedom-world/2025. Accessed 9 May 2026.

“Brazil: Freedom on the Net 2025.” Freedom House. Freedom House, 2025, freedomhouse.org/country/brazil/freedom-net/2025. Accessed 9 May 2026.

“Brazil’s Supreme Court Decides Platforms Must Be Held Accountable for User Content in Social Media.” Brasil de Fato, 27 June 2025, www.brasildefato.com.br/2025/06/27/brazils-supreme-court-decides-platforms-must-be-held-accountable-for-user-content-in-social-media/. Accessed 9 May 2026.

“Brazil’s Top Court Acts to Protect Journalists from Judicial Harassment.” Committee to Protect Journalists, 24 May 2024, cpj.org/2024/05/brazils-top-court-acts-to-protect-journalists-from-judicial-harassment/. Accessed 9 May 2026.

Levine, Robert M. The History of Brazil. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Matos, Carolina. Journalism and Political Democracy in Brazil. Lexington, 2008.

“Press Freedom in Brazil: Sound the Alarm.” Council on Hemispheric Affairs. COHA, 22 Oct. 2012, coha.org/press-freedom-in-brazil-sound-the-alarm/. Accessed 9 May 2026.