Rousseff: “We have to learn to live with criticism to live in a civilized way”

Brazil, February 23, 2011

Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, strongly defended the freedom of the press, calling to live with “differences of opinion, belief and proposals”.

And said “In the Brazilian democracy, we should all prefer a million times the sounds of critical voices of a free press than the silence of the dictatorship”. The remarks were made as part of the 90th anniversary of Folha de Sao Paulo, one of the newspapers with more readers in the country.

So she took distance from Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, who had been critical of some critical voices within his mandate.

“The maturation of the civic conscience of our society is an obligation to live in a civilized manner with differences of opinion, belief and proposals” said Dilma during the celebration.

“A free and plural press is essential for democracy in a country like ours, which, besides being continental, brings together different cultures” she argued.

And finally she added that “A government must learn to live with the criticism of the newspapers to have a real commitment to democracy”.