Rosental Calmon Alves will receive the Press Freedom Award from the Brazilian National Association of Newspapers at a ceremony in São Paulo on Dec. 3.
Referred to as ANJ, the Brazilian National Association of Newspapers described Alves as an exemplary figure for multiple generations of reporters and one of the premier leaders in Brazilian journalism. The organization cited his advocacy for an access to information law in Brazil, his prominence in digital journalism, and his leadership in journalism training through the creation of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
Alves serves as the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and directs the Knight Center, which publishes the LatAm Journalism Review and organizes the International Symposium on Journalism. ANJ has given the Press Freedom Award annually since 2008 to honor contributions to the defense of democracy and the free press, with past recipients including UNESCO and the Comprova fact-checking project.
“This award really moved me because it came as a surprise at a very special time in my life and my career,” Alves said, noting that he will soon retire after 30 years at UT-Austin. “It is also very special that this honor comes from my homeland and from ANJ, an organization with which I have been associated since the 1990s.”
Honoring a Career Spanning Decades of Digital Innovation
ANJ Executive President Marcelo Rech said the award recognized an innovative journalist whose career shaped the development of quality journalism and the defense of press freedom. Rech said that he first met Alves in the mid-1990s when Alves pioneered the ANJ editorial group.
“As a fledgling editor-in-chief at Zero Hora, it was astonishing for me to be at the same table as a professional of Rosental’s caliber, whom I had already admired from afar after reading one of the best war reports I had ever seen when he was sent as a special correspondent to El Salvador by Jornal do Brasil,” Rech told the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
Originating from Rio de Janeiro, Alves started working professionally in 1968 at the age of 16 amid the Brazilian military regime. He spent 27 years working in journalism, primarily at Jornal do Brasil, where he served as a reporter, copy editor, editor, and director. During his time there, he pioneered digital journalism by helping launch the Instant News System in 1991 and JB Online, Brazil’s first newspaper website, in 1995.
“It was something revolutionary, which could only come from a visionary like Rosental,” Rech said.
Alves Participated in Discussions Regarding Press Freedom
Alves moved to Texas in 1996 to take up the Knight Chair in Journalism at UT-Austin. Despite the move, he maintained active participation in discussions regarding press freedom and access to public information in Brazil.
In 2002, as he established the Knight Center, ANJ invited him to a seminar in São Paulo focused on access to information. Alves credited other journalists, such as Fernando Rodrigues, founder of the Brazilian news outlet Poder360, as key figures in the creation of the country’s access to information law.
“From there we worked together on various initiatives to promote the idea that a freedom of information law would be necessary to strengthen democracy in Brazil,” Alves said.
Francisco Mesquita Neto, vice chair of ANJ’s Press Freedom Committee, emphasized Alves’ impact on expanding tools for monitoring public officials and organizing professional newspapers. Alves helped turn foundational journalistic principles into concrete initiatives that gave newsrooms more tools to investigate and hold those in power accountable, according to Mesquita Neto.
Rech added that the sustainability of professional journalism remained a central concern for Alves throughout his career. Without high-quality, principled, independent, diverse, and strong journalism, democracies cannot survive, Rech stated.
