Brazil's military dictatorship may have been gone for a quarter of a century, but it's anything but forgotten. Acting on a law leftover from the days of the junta, the government has just banned making fun of political candidates until October elections. The law prohibits TV and radio from the use of "trickery, montages or other features of audio or video in any way to degrade or ridicule a candidate, party or coalition" during the final 90 days of a campaign.
"Do you know of any other democracy in the world with rules like this?" wonders Marcelo Tas, host of the acidly satirical TV show Caiga Quien Caiga (Fall Where They May). "If you want to find a bigger joke, you would have to look to Monty Python." As Reason.com's Nick Gillespie notes, the law doesn't spell out what happens if a candidate makes an ass of himself.
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