Media roles, and ethics: perceptions of Brazilian, American and French journalist
This paper analyzes self-perceptions of media roles and ethics of a sample of Brazilian journalists and compares them with American and French journalists. French and American styles of journalism have had major inﬂ uences on Brazilian newspapers at different points in time. The study included a self-administered survey with 402 journalists working for 13 leading news organizations and personal interviews with renowned journalists of Sao Paulo- Brazil’s main media hub.  The typical Brazilian journalist in this study was a young white middle-class male, politically left leaning oriented, more likely to be married and Catholic. Respondents held a pluralistic view regarding media roles and expressed higher tolerance of controversial journalistic practices compared to that of their counterparts. Findings are in line with the social-political environment in which journalists operate. They do not enjoy special rights of access to government information, tend to distrust public institutions and have still been adapting to press freedom since the country’s redemocratization.
Journalism/Communication graduate education in Brazil
Abstract A general overview of Brazilian graduate courses in the field of communication and journalism is presented from an historical perspective. The present article presents data about the development of graduate courses throughout the country, taking into account the increasing number of undergraduate courses which are on offer in the same area. The article also covers the academic scientific production of programmes in the fields of journalism and communication. Up until 1991, only seven graduate programmes in communication were available in Brazil. The number of programmes increased to 36 graduate courses in 2009, with such programmes being distributed throughout the five regions of the country, with one in the north (Amazonas), seven in the south, five in the north-east, 20 in the south-east, and three in the central west. Of the 36 graduate courses, 23 offer only Master's programmes, whereas 13 offer both PhD and Master's programmes. According to the 2007 Education Census data, undergraduate social communication courses had an enrolment of 221 901 students in that year. Currently, 1 810 undergraduate communication courses, as well as 558 journalism courses are on offer in Brazil.
Human Rights Obligations and Transnational Corporations: The Limits of Direct Corporate Responsibility
To date, multinational corporations have had no direct human rights obligations under international law. Nonetheless, international lawyers can no longer ignore the increasing role of non-state actors in international society. This article suggests analysing existing mechanisms and new proposals for enhancing the accountability of transnational corporations, grouped into those focusing on the responsibility of the home and host states and those centred on the imposition of direct obligations on corporations. This article will specifically draw attention to the limits of some of the suggested normative changes, from a legal-theoretical perspective and in terms of their capacity to address effectively the challenges of the lack of respect for human rights laws.