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Welcome to beautiful Rio de Janeiro. Home to the world-famous Carnvial, Christ-the-Redeemer, Stan Getzs Ipanema, caiprihinas, samba! And also home to a lot of Brazilian comedians, many of who took to the streets last August to protest censorship. And when I say streets, I mean Copacabana beach this is Rio after all. Depending on your familiarity with Rio de Janeiro, you may think its all sunshine, dancing, and men in speedos. And you wouldnt be totally wrong. But the Brazilian government as a whole still struggles with staggering corruption percentages and crime in Rio continues to be a problem. But all eyes are on cleaning up Rio in preparation for not only the World Cup in 2014 but also the Olympics in 2016. Lucky girl. And Brazils economic rise promises to pull it into a league of first world power, as its days of military dictatorship fade into history. Well, except for one archaic law that decided to rear its head in last years election.
Enter our protesting comedians. According to Time Magazine, in 1997 the Brazilian government passed a law that prohibited the broadcast media from in any way degrading or ridiculing candidates, parties or coalitions running in the October elections for president, Congress and state governments. The law was purportedly passed quietly, so it stands to reason there was no major incident precipitating its creation. And it continued to be a kind of non-issue legislation, perhaps due in part to the lack of political comedy programs on Brazilian television.
Read the rest at Splitsider.---See more posts by The Awl0 comments
