Thursday, November 17, 2011

Brazil Reverses Itself, Finds Me Guilty of Causing 'Dishonor' to the Nation and Demands a 'Retraction.' ... My Reply: Retract This!

[UPDATE, Dec. 20 -- Since posting this over a month ago, I decided, for the edification of my readers, to approve for this one post many of the more vile comments that routinely arrive from my fans in Brazil, who just love to accuse me of being a murderer, etc., and seem to be blissfully self-unaware. On the other hand, some of the comments come from sensible Brazilians. I post some of the vile comments (see comments link at end) so that sensible people here can see what I mean about trying to be rational in Brazil ...]

In what is clearly a brazen challenge to American law that protects U.S. citizens from foreign defamation judgments in foreign verdicts that are a clear affront to the First Amendment and U.S. free speech protections, a Brazilian court today found me guilty in a defamation case brought by a Brazilian woman I had never heard of, nor written a single word about.

Today's court decision overturned an earlier one that had dismissed the case against me, saying the plaintiff had no ground to sue because I had never written or said a single word about her. Two of the three-judge panel decided against me. The third judge said he's still studying the papers, and will make his decision known by Dec. 1, but even if he sided with me that would still make the verdict stand at 2-1.

The lawsuit makes preposterous allegations, including an astonishing one that actually suggests that I was on board the Legacy business jet, which collided at 37,000 feet over the Amazon with a Brazilian airliner, as a participant in a nebulous plot to claim the Amazon rain forest for unspecified imperial interests.

In the collision, on Sept. 29, 2006, 154 people on the Brazilian 737 died in a horrifying plunge to the jungle, while seven men on the business jet that collided with it, including me, survived after a harrowing 25-minute flight in a severely damaged airplane that, at the last minute before crashing itself into the jungle, managed an emergency landing at a jungle airstrip.

The other allegations in the suit are also outright fabrications, cooked up in an attempt to cover up official malfeasance in crash aftermath, to discredit me for accurate reporting and commentary on the disgraceful official Brazilian handling of the accident, and to inhibit me from doing further reporting and commentary in the United States.

As I reported here soon after the crash, the Brazilian authorities -- cheered on by a xenophobic media that was aflame with anti-Americanism -- had rushed recklessly to criminalize the accident and scapegoat the American pilots, long before the facts were known.

Severe problems in the military-run Brazilian air traffic control system, widely known before the crash, were covered over by authorities. However, an investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that, as I also had been reporting, systemic and operational faults by Brazilian air traffic control were likely the primary cause of the disaster. (The N.T.S.B. was involved in the investigation in Brazil because one of the planes, the Boeing 737, was American-made. The Legacy was made by the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.)

The lawsuit -- which accuses me of causing "dishonor" to the entire nation of Brazil -- was based on the remarkable legal assertion that the plaintiff, as a Brazilian citizen, suffered an insult to her honor because of my reporting -- even though she was never mentioned in any way. Among the odd things that I am falsely accused of writing -- as an insult to the honor of all Brazilians, according to the suit -- is that "Brazil is most idiot of idiots."

That and other fabricated comments attributed to me in the suit were mostly culled, in fact, from comments appended to, or linked from, various Web sites in Brazilian media in which anonymous Brazilians ranted about me and even, in some cases, about Brazilian authorities for the disgraceful way they handled the aftermath of the crash. Ultimately such online mayhem melds into a rat's-nest of bewildering hyperlinks, with lots of side trips down links that can lead to Crazy Lane.

But even if I forgotten basic grammatical elements of my native tongue and had written that Brazil is "most idiot of idiots," that would not be remotely actionable in any country with any respect for free speech -- and certainly not under U.S. law.

The lawsuit is now probably Exhibit A in the free-speech issue presented by attempts by people in foreign countries, or their governments, to punish free speech in the United States that someone in a foreign country objects to.

If any foreign citizen, or government, can reach into the United States to criminalize free speech here that anyone in a foreign country might find objectionable, that is a grave affront to the U.S. First Amendment.

Incidentally, as I complete my book on this awful situation, I was thinking just yesterday: You know, never once in 2006, during the time we seven badly shaken and traumatized survivors were in custody with the military in the Amazon and then at a police headquarters in the days after the crash, while we mourned the deaths of those 154 people, while we remained in custody, incommunicado, for days -- never once did anyone there express the slightest concern about us.

Anyway, here's a news report on the court action in Brazil today that finds me guilty and seeks to impose both civil and criminal penalties against me. The court also demands that I "retract" statements that, uh, I demonstrably never made.

I am very sad to say that this sorry piece of "journalism" appears today in Jornal do Brasil, a major Brazilian newspaper that once bravely distinguished itself by standing up to the ruthless military dictatorship that oppressed that country from 1964 to 1985, while much of the rest of the media was on its knees to serve the generals. Today, alas, it just prints stories that insult free speech, without bothering with the basic facts. Sic transit gloria mundi.

(Translation thanks to Richard Pedicini in Sao Paulo:)

"Courts order American journalist on Legacy to retract
Joyce Carvalho

The American journalist Joe Sharkey, who was the Legacy that collided with a Gol Boeing on September 29, 2006 - an accident that resulted in the deaths of the 154 occupants of the airliner - was sentenced to recant publicly about the offensive articles he wrote on his blog. In addition, he must pay $ 50,000 in compensation to the wife of a victim.

The case was tried on Thursday afternoon in the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court of Parana. Although the Judge José Aniceto Augusto Gomes asked for time to examine the case, there were two votes in favor of condemnation, the opinion author and appellate judge Sérgio Luiz Patitucci and appellate judge Rosana Girardi Fachin.

"Although the trial was suspended, we have the majority of the votes. Now we can only know if it was unanimous or by majority," said lawyer Dante D'Aquino, who represents Rosane Gutjahr, who lost her husband in the accident and filed the lawsuit after Sharkey's criticism on matters relating to the case. According to Rosane [My note: For some reason, the Brazilian news media are in the quaint habit of referring to women by their first names in subsequent references], the journalist offended Brazilians and wrote untrue material in The New York Times. [My note: No one has ever shown that anything I wrote in the Times, or afterward on my blog, was inaccurate. In fact, I was consistently right, from day one, about how the investigation was being botched, and air safety in Brazil was being ill-served]

The decision by the 9th Civil Chamber of the Court reversed the decision of the trial court which did not recognize the legitimacy of Rosane's request for the action of public apology and damages. From the beginning, Joe Sharkey offered no defense. At the trial today, he did not attend or send any representative.

"He was properly cited, is aware of the action and there are documents that prove this. He chose not to attend," said D'Aquino, who also represents the Association of Relatives and Friends of Victims of Flight 1907, of which Rosane is a director.

The journalist may appeal the Supreme Court (STF) within 15 days after publication of the decision of the Parana Tribunal of Justice. There are questions about the sentence because Sharkey lives in the United States. D'Aquino said that the means of execution of the sentence is by means of letters rogatory, used in bilateral agreements. In this case, the U.S. judiciary would be triggered and informed about the reversal of the sentence. Thereafter, the penalty would have to be fulfilled in that country.

"We can not say categorically that he will comply," said the lawyer. In addition to this condemnation, Sharkey was held criminally liable for offenses against the Federal Police, the federal government and the Justice Department.

Rosane celebrated the result on Thursday and said the $ 50,000 of compensation will be donated to the Association of Friends of the Hospital de Clinicas. The association works closely with the Hospital de Clinicas, linked to the Federal University of Parana. "I don't say it was a victory. My husband is dead and not coming back.

But it is a positive point in all this. The same goes for the condemnation of the Legacy pilots in the criminal area. It is an ending. The only thing that remains, and that can not be sold, is the honor, dignity, "she affirmed after the session at the Tribunal of Justice. She took the opportunity to call on the Foreign Ministry to make the sentence to be enforced effectively, interceding with the United States.

The crash

Gol Flight 1907, which was en route Manaus-Rio de Janeiro, with a stop in Brasilia, crashed in northern Mato Grosso, on September 29, 2006, killing all 148 passengers and six crew members. The accident occurred after a collision with a Legacy executive jet manufactured by Embraer, which landed safely at an airbase in southern Pará

The pilots of the Legacy, Americans Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, are accused of not having turned on Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) equipment responsible for contact between the aircraft and the transmission towers. The indictment by the Federal Prosecutors' Office, presented in May 2007, reports that the aircraft's transponder Gol remained on throughout the flight, but the Legacy's, from a certain point, was off. The transponder is a device that interacts with the secondary air control radars and other transponders, providing information about the position and movement of aircraft.

The sequence of errors that caused the accident also went through a miscommunication between controllers and pilots of the Brazilian jet, which, not understanding the instructions, had put the aircraft at the same altitude as the flight Gol, 37,000 feet. [My note: That's not true. It is not in the slightest dispute, even by the Brazilians, that the American pilots were instructed several times by air traffic control to maintain the altitude of 37,000 feet]. In May 2007, pilots and four flight controllers were accused by federal prosecutors for the crime of attack on the security of the national air transportation. The Americans were acquitted of negligence in December 2008, but in 2010 the court overturned the acquittal and ordered the resumption of the trial.

In May 2011, they were sentenced by Justice of Mato Grosso to four years and four months in a halfway house for exposing to danger an aircraft, their own or another's, the act having resulted in death. The penalty, however, was converted to community service and prohibition from practicing their profession and would be enforced in the United States, where the pilots reside.

In 2008, flight controllers Leandro José Santos de Barros and Felipe Santos dos Reis were summarily acquitted of all charges by the Federal Court. Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos was also acquitted of the crime in May 2011. In the same decision, the court of Mato Grosso Lucivando Tiburcio de Alencar sentenced to community service for an attack on air transport safety.

In Military Justice, the military prosecution to determine the responsibility of five controllers who worked on the day of the accident - the four indicted by the MPF and João Batista da Silva - was begun in June 2008. In October 2010, four were acquitted - only Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos was convicted of manslaughter, but received the right to appeal in liberty. He appealed to the Superior Military Court (STM) and awaits trial."


***

By the way, some of the less hysterical of my Brazilian antagonists keep demanding that I answer this: What do I suppose would happen if Brazilian pilots in a Brazilian plane collided with an American plane in U.S. skies?

I'm frankly baffled by their implication that American aviation authorities would have behaved like the Brazilian authorities did, rushing to criminalize the case and automatically blame the foreigners, and that the American media would wallow in a hyper atmosphere of anti-Brazilianism and defensive xenophobia.

Listen, it just wouldn't happen. Nor, I might add, is American airspace considered to be dangerous. Air traffic controllers in the U.S. are highly trained, and held to close supervision. No one in the U.S. would blame the victims who lived.

Nor would the American media pile slander and libel on a foreign reporter, a survivor of a horrible crash, who wrote honestly but critically about official inattention to any obvious problems in air-traffic safety, and any cover-up by the authorities. Instead, the American media would be doing its job, evaluating and reporting the facts, without fear or favor.

Nor, of course, would an American court ever take the preposterous position that a foreign writer is to be held to account legally for saying that America is "banana," which is one of the other fabricated charges against me vis a vis Brazil.

Banana. No "S," no article "a."

Also, I am falsely accused of having written that Brazil is a "land of tupiniquins and of bananas" (Until I looked it up, I didn't have any idea what a "tupiniquin" is. It evidently is a slang word for Brazilians, in the way the word "Yanks" is slang for Americans. At any rate, I never said it.)

Also, there is a fabricated charge that I wrote that "Brazil is a country of carnival, football, thieves and prostitutes." Never said anything remotely like that either -- but if I had, it would have been in a better English sentence than that clunker.

In the report today in Brazil's Globo, a leading newspaper, Dante D'Aquino, the lawyer for the victims' families' association in which the plaintiff is a leader, blithely repeated those ugly falsehoods. "We had not recovered the bodies of people and he (Sharkey) was saying that Brazil has only hick, that Brazil is the most idiotic of idiots, who here has only samba, carnival and prostitutes," he told Globo -- which simply took him at face value, even though it's well known that I never said anything remotely like that.

***

Meanwhile, while this case creates another smokescreen of anti-Americanism, international aviation experts say that not nearly enough has been done in Brazil to address the manifest problems with aviation safety and the horrible misery and sorrow that this malfeasance has visited upon the families of the 154 people killed in the Amazon crash, and the 199 killed just seven months later in the next Brazilian airline crash, in Sao Paulo.

Just this week, for example, the Brazilian Air Force, which is still in charge of all air traffic control in the country, reported that airplane crashes in Brazil this year are running at a record level. According to a report on Monday in Agencia Brasil (and thanks as usual to Richard Pedicini for the translation), "the period January 1 to October 31 accounted for 128 plane crashes, 17 more than in all months of last year, and 14 more than occurred in 2009 when the country registered a record of accidents."

These statistics about the record number of crashes come from the Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa), an arm of the Air Force. Of this year's airplane crashes so far, 106 were civilian aircraft and 22 were helicopter accidents. Of the accidents, 25 had fatalities. Thirty aircraft were destroyed.


***

As I said, my motivation from day one has been to underscore the serious issues of aviation safety in Brazil, and the culture of blame, recrimination and defensive butt-covering that prevents substantive remedial action.

Some of the angry Brazilian media continue to demand to know why I don't comment anymore to them.

Uh, Brazil media, here's a news flash for you. It's because I do not trust you, and with demonstrably good reason. Again and again since 2006, via a vis the Brazilian media, I have learned the hard way that they don't give me the courtesy of accurately and honestly reporting a comment, without twisting my words to make sure that the villain's comments comport with that nasty little fictional narrative they've been so invested in for over five years.

Just watch how the words in this particular blog post today get twisted beyond any sense of what they are meant to say.

You want a comment, Brazilian media? O.K., here it is: The charges are total fabrications, and you all have known that for years while you repeated many untruths and even fabricated some new ones -- with malice and reckless disregard for the truth, even after you have been put on notice to desist.

In my country, with the best free-speech protections in the world, that is a precise definition of libel.

For additional elaboration, please see all of the above.

###

37 comments:

Gabriel Faria said...

had you died in the crash it wouldn't be a problem anyway.
greetings from brazil!

Patty said...

Joe, I disagree with lots of things you have writen BUT you are right when you say we don't have REAL free speech - it's in our Constitution but nobody here seems to understand what free speech really is...
BUT The saddest thing is if you fought the case with a lawyer, you probably would won because the FACTS narrated in the lawsuit were considered TRUE because you never challenged it... It's a universal law: if you don't stand up against evil, you are agreeing with it...

Quinsano said...

You killed 154 people !!! Can u please SHUT UP?? MONSTER.

M. M. said...

U r a loser and lucky for having survived the accident.
You should show some solidarity with the Brazilian people and apologize to the victims' families.

Never appears in Brazil again, you're not welcome here.

Quinsano said...

Don´t never come back to Brazil, simple way to escape from Justice.

Anonymous said...

Guilty and unhonored! God punishment dont fail and you ll go to... lol!

Anonymous said...

Relax.You are alive.

Anonymous said...

Joe, your bad move was not to have anyone there on your behalf for the proceedings.

In Brazil, if you don't contest the charges, all factual allegations in the suit are deemed to be true. That made it easy for her to get you for libel.

So, regardless of the (lack of) merit in her suit, you should have had a representative there, then possibly countersue or at least make her pay court costs.

Victor said...

Hi Joe. I am an brazilian and makes me very sad to see what's going on with this case. I agree with what you said about free speech, even if you had said those things, it would be your right to do it. But what makes me even more sad, is that they officially accused you of things that they can't even prove. What kind of justice is that? It's horrible to know that this is my country justice. About the crash, i was a young teenager with no interest in newspapers at the time, but from what i heard in the tv media at that time(and it wasn't much), i had clearly in my mind, and most people that i knew had it too, that the most fault in the accident was of brazilian air traffic control. And about the media today, i read it in ''O estado de São Paulo'' about the process, and they just said what the process is all about, and inserted the link of your Blog. At least the link is usefull to those who want to know what was truly said. I hope this process doesn't go along, and that you can keep saying what you saw of the brazilian officers in responsibles brazilian's newspapers. I hope too that the justice of my country can evolve in the coming years (one century maybe..). Sorry about my bad english! Goodbye.

Anonymous said...

I'm Brazilian and and it hurts to me to say that Brazil is one of the most corrupt and has the most disorganized Juridical system in the Americas.

If I were you I would spend some time researching about all the bad thing about the Brazilian government and would write a book.

http://www.transparencia.org.br/docs/private-sector-2003.pdf

http://www.transparencia.org.br/docs/votebuying2002.pdf

http://www.transparencia.org.br/docs/GFIIQuestionnaire.pdf

http://www.transparencia.org.br/docs/kroll-tb-summary-eng.pdf

http://www.transparencia.org.br/docs/Summary.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Corruption-Brazil-Sarney-Lula-ebook/dp/B005QNO98A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321575603&sr=8-2

Anonymous said...

Mr. Sharkey, first of all I am brazilian and would like to say that I am by no means offended by any of your comments. As an aviation enthusiast and a lawyer I have always been totally against treating aviation incidents as criminal cases. And I also find it almost offensive that a new democracy as Brazil should simply forget the basic need that any country has for freedom of speech, specially over the internet, a true 'no mans land' if I may say, where we should be able to express how we feel and see things without any fears.

Criminal and civil convictions in situations like this one are fruit of ´liberal minds' in Brazil, that tend to turn their backs to consolidated democracies and legal systems, such as the USA, to implement something "evolved", "inovative", "brazilian". Our constitution has 250 articles, has been amended almost 70 times but nobody realizes that we are closer to the socialist constitutions of the long gone USSR than the lasting principles and ideas of the american constitution.

Brazilian courts should never have kept the pilots arrested, should never have prosecuted the flight controller and should never have convicted you. Attitudes like these only contribute for the stagnacy of our country, relegating us to a definition that we simply hate: third world coutry.

Brazilian media should get to now your views about the lawsuit and remember absurds that they have shouted such as the lies about the Legacy in which you were having flown low over the amazon as a ´scenic flight´. That, if I may say, is a childish lie based on the brazilian media´s naivité and sensationalism.

Best regards.

Richard said...

This journalist is a disgrace to the USA. He only speaks nonsense, do not use in good faith. It deserves to be arrested. The USA, parents' freedom of expression has a bad rep that confuses freedom with journalistic fraud. Urgently resign this guy. Intrinsically USA deserves the best journalists.

ASDR FADF DF said...

Hello. I'm Brazilian. I agree with yours comments about this incident. And, unhappiest, our justice is too tendentious; ours public administrations is worst. I wanna tell you my history. I'm an telecommunication engineer and I had a telecommunication business, legally at ours Brazilians laws . I intended to denounce my government cause there were a fraud in our regulator agency; so, I made a blog about this. There were so much fraud for me to denounce, but... one day, last month, I was visited by federal police (like yours FBI... I think so...it is different). And so, after all, I was prisoner, cause I had a telecommunication business but, it was legally at ours Brazilians laws. This is the Brazil. One politician told one day: "There are to much ignorant ordering the diligent men, that I think that ignorance is a science" (Ruy Barbosa, 1849-1923). Sentence too old. Nothing changes. Of course there are the two sides in a view-point. But making at power force, we kill the oratory. The argue is a necessary evolution. Do not stop your gab.

Thanks,

Eng. Onei .'.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

As a Brazilian it pains me to see something like this going on.

So, Joe "defamed" Brazil. RIght.

What about the 10%+ of illiteracy. Doesn't THAT "defamed" Brazil?

What about the millions in poverty. Doesnt THAT "defamed" Brazil?

Or what about the corrupt culture from top to bottom, doesn't THAT defamed Brazil?

The sad reality is Brazil has a deep inferiority complex, that is uncorked in episodes like yours, Joe. It's the ugly side of the "happy" "cool" people that considers itselft as a model to the world of knowing how to enjoy life without realizing that they aren't taken seriously anywhere.

And you know what, even if you said that there's only samba, carnaval and prossies in Brazil, you wouldn't really be that far from the truth. It's sad, nobody will admit, but it is also true. Of course there is a gem here and there, but these are the exceptions.

Like Roberto Campos, one of Brazil's greatest thinkers said: "Ignorance in Brazil had a glorious past, and a promising future".

Keep it up Joe.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry when I said: "The same politicians who wrote the Federal Constitution are the same people who remained in Congress", I acctually meant they were all part of the dictatorship as well.

Anonymous said...

kkkkk LOL best free speech ... Swallow the repression! Via ocupe all street

Anonymous said...

The case was brought by Rosane Gutjahr, who lost her husband in the tragedy. "We had not recovered the bodies of people and he (Sharkey) was saying that Brazil has only tupiniquins, that Brazil is the most idiotic of idiots, who here has only samba, carnival and prostitutes". That's why you're afraid to return to Brazil, mr. Sharkey?

Anonymous said...

If you didn't say those things, why you don't send an email or letter to brazilian media instead of being crying in this blog? According to the post you was sentenced to pay the penalty and it was sentenced by a Court of Justice so there are real proofs that you said all those things. And if you did, I think that you should pay for it. Justice should be made! There is a BIG difference between free-speech and respect in what you are going to say. Principally when involves people from other countries, other cultures. And as a journalist you should know abou this. Be ethical!

Breno said...

Dude, you certainly did no wrong on this one, and I'm ashamed the prosecutors didn't look into the evidence with more attention. But you're not helping yourself blaming xenophobia and Anti-Americanism. This is not about xenophobia, this is just plain stupidity. When you try to make it about xenophobia though, and praise the US for her supposed "best free-speech protection system" in the world, you're doing something similar to that you're accusing others to do - you're being a nationalistic a-hole. Remember Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, illegal CIA prisons over Europe, etc.? I think I've made my point. Our media and judicial system (not to mention English-as-a-second-language skills) are indeed terrible, as is our ability to understand things before running our mouths - but there are idiots in every nation of this world. Many Brazilians are ashamed and would like to apologize for not being able to "fix" the country so this kind of absurdity doesn't happen. Nonetheless, you shouldn't take Boeing's or NTFB's (or something like that) word as gospel. After all, both planes crashed into each other and only the Brazilian-made one landed. The military-run air control system is indeed a mess, but the Legacy pilot turning off the transponder certainly didn't help.

Breno said...

Oh, and double-check your research: There's nothing bad about "tupiniquim" or "tupiniquins" (see, you can't type proper Portuguese either - as many of us can't type proper English). They were the first tribe of natives the Portuguese found when they've got here in the 16th century. If any Brazilian thinks "tupiniquim" is a derogatory term, they're the racists in this story. I, for one, am very proud of my tupiniquim heritage.

alan said...

Mr Joe,
You wrote:

"Also, I am falsely accused of having written that Brazil is a "land of tupiniquins and of bananas" (Until I looked it up, I didn't have any idea what a "tupiniquin" is. It evidently is a slang word for Brazilians, in the way the word "Yanks" is slang for Americans. At any rate, I never said it.)"

Could'nt you understand that it was metaphorical speaking? You did not wrote exactly that, but it was like you had.

As a journalist you had obligation to understand a simple figurative language. Once you cannot understand that, is not surprise you cant understand your role in this terrible accident.

You are so naive in saying that you and the pilots are poor innocents guys, while brazilian authorities and media are the evil ones.
Let me say one thing to you: There is no such thing as a "innocent guy" in a history like that.

Diego S. said...

Mr. Sharkey.
I am Brazilian, and you should not listen to Brazilian media and journalism. They are extremely sensationalists and tends to judge people before knowing what is truly happening.The problem is that most Brazilians do not know how to really see the truth through the news. I am already aware of that, and every time I see some brazilian news I try to always see both sides of points of view and read several newspaper and magazines to see the differences. Out government is completely corrupt. Our government is against us(Brazilian) and with anybody that inflicts their interests. We dont have free will and freedom of expression. We are going to be forever a in development country because we just care for the appearances and just care about economy and money. There are no great investments in public transportation, healthy area and the most important: Education.That is why there are a lot of stupid people in Brazil and why the corruption continues.
But I ask you to not judge us all brazilians just because of our shit media and shit government. There are very friendly and nice people here. I hope you can get through this.
Best Regards

Anonymous said...

I hope you where in that plane mate, that is what you need !!!

leoboiko said...

I’m ashamed for my country. The true dishonor of the nation is the fear-mongering, irrational Brazilian people.

Mr Sharkey, you might want to add some kind of comment moderation in your blog, lest someone claim on court that the illiterate insults of my compatriots are further slander from the American monster.

Mr. Hart said...

Hi, you are right about a lot of things: Brazil have a lot of problems, but just like US, Brazil media are not perfect, but US media are perfect? FOXNEWS is perfect for you? Democracy in Brazil are not perfect, but do you really believe that in a country with 300000000 peoples there are just 2 ways to think? Just 2 parties in the congress? Sorry, but democracy in the US are not perfect too. And one more think: you have the right to express your self, in US and in Brazil, and you have right to ask the Court, in US and in Brazil, tell me the difference: in the US you can be tried in absentia, like in Brazil. I insist: where´s the strong difference?

Cristiano said...

Joe said: "In my country, with the best free-speech protections in the world, that is a precise definition of libel." Okay... The best comediant of the world... Comment this, Joe: http://occupywallst.org/article/nypd-swarming-liberty-square-bloody-assault-all-ex/. :)

Embarrassed Brazilian said...

I just want to remind you that the little kids (if not just one numerous times) posting comments on your blog do not represent an entire country's opinion. That's why we are always going to be a banana republic. Brazil isn't the problem. Brazilians are.
Regards.

Marcos said...

Your limited brain disables you on writting anything that worth reading. Pls, go do somehting else where no writting, sense of justice or respect for anything is envolved.

Anonymous said...

you don't show any respect for the 154 families...
You are a killer and you just don't regret.
That was not a accident.
If you had read the rules of Brazilian Aviation, that would never happen.
You negligent!

Anonymous said...

I didn’t like the court decision overturn. The first judicial decision was more rational, because the single judge not recognizing any offense and declares the illegitimacy of the widow to claim.

Perhaps, the court considering the fact that Joe had not try a formal defense, whereas, on the other hand, the plaintiff hired a dedicated lawyer and ran after "his" interest.

There was’ not causing “Dishoner” to the nation, Its was just inconvenient truths didn’t justification this condemnation. Then, three alternatives:


- Be more altruistic! Pay this amount insignificant in aid to an philanthropic institution in a developing country;

- Keep the faith in the American system and wait to see if the justice of the U.S. will confirm this strange decision;

- Give one vote in the Brazilian judicial system! Appeal the decision to Superior Court and submit yours reasons and defense.

Joesharkey.com said...

Thank you all for your input. I usually don't post comments from raving idiots, but as you can see from many of these here, this is what one contends with when writing anything critical about Brazil. I post these (and some sensible ones as well) as a cautionary note regarding the atmosphere that reporters, bloggers, critics and others might expect when the thousands of the world's media descend on Rio for the walk-up to the 2016 Olympics. Each one of these nasties is a potential plaintiff in a defamation suit.

Save the Humans said...

Death threats are still the real law in Brazil.

Sharkey, maybe it would be interesting if you made nominal donations to Brazilian free-speech and civil-rights organizations.

I too am being sued for R$50,000 by some lady I have never mentioned or heard of in Brazil.

These "defamation" laws, as they are applied, appear to be some leftover of a dictatorship. It appears that not knowing what free speech really is, leads many people to condemn everything they disagree with as "libelous", "defamatory", etc.

Brazilian internet reality is heavily censored by this kind of threat. Bloggers, internet providers, and posters constantly have to be concerned about defamation lawsuits - and then, physical and death threats, after privacy has been removed.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Joe, my fellow countrymen behave like spoiled children sometimes (ok, most of the times). Keep doing the fine work.

Douglas said...

Mr. Joe, you should show more respect with other countries. The things that you said about the airplane accident, show that you are arrogant and stupid like the old United States. The time change, remenber september,11,2001. I visit U.S with often and americans like you, don´t have space in this new period of time. People like you are hated around the world. Please man, shut up and be a man to treat the law.

Reggie said...

Don’t make jokes to honors Brazilian Citizens, respect, just respect us ok.
Whish you have a terrible year’s eve, you are a monster.

manta9527 said...

Quinsano: "You killed 154 people!!! Can u please SHUT UP?? MONSTER."

Joe, seeing Quinsano's comment made me think of the line Oscar Beregi delivered in the 'Twilight Zone' episode Death's Head Revisited.

Beregi: "What is this nonsense? What is this gibberish? What is this madness?"

Those are my thoughts regarding Quinsano's accusation. Is he serious? How can he possibly accuse you of killing 154 people? You weren't even IN the pilot's seat. You were merely a passenger. Everyone knows that ... except Quinsano, apparently.

I won't even mention the lawsuit against you. You already made your feelings known about that.