Today at the Berkman Center, Fernando Rodrigues, a journalist from Brazil who is currently a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, spoke about "Journalism and Public Information in Brazil." In 2002, Rodrigues launched "Políticos do Brasil," a website that contains approximately 25,000 records of Brazilian politicians showing electoral information and personal data – including the list of personal assets of each politician who ran for office in the past three general elections in Brazil. On one day in 2006 the site drew 1,000,000 viewers. The site is free to the public and has been the source for many news stories for media outlets all over Brazil.

Rodrigues focused much of his talk on the importance of public access to government information, a subject that is relevant to traditional and non-traditional journalists all over the world.

You can view a recording of Rodrigues' talk at MediaBerkman and a transcript of the talk is available here.

(Note: I am a fellow at the Berkman Center and the CMLP is hosted there.)