Americans writers' free expression is under attack by foreign courts.

In the most recent assault, a Brazilian widow is suing an American reporter in a Brazilian court for allegedly defaming the entire nation of Brazil. She claims Joseph M. Sharkey, a New Jersey - based freelance travel columnist for the New York Times, offended the "dignity" of Brazil by criticizing its incompetent air-traffic control on his blog. Moreover, she claims that under Brazilian law, an "insult" to Brazil is also a personal insult to her as a Brazilian citizen.

The lawsuit was filed by the widow of one of the 154 victims who died in a mid-air collision of the Brazilian Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 with a U.S. business jet over the Amazon on September 29, 2006. All 154 passengers on the Brazilian aircraft died; the seven passengers on the American jet survived.

Joe Sharkey was one of the lucky seven survivors on the plane, which made an emergency landing in the Amazon in Brazil. Upon his return to the U.S., Sharkey published a front-page article in the New York Times about the disaster, and told his story on major national TV and radio outlets.

The Brazilian authorities detained the American survivors for lengthy interrogations, and immediately criminalized the accident, assigning blame to the American pilots. They proceeded to prosecute - in abstentia - the two American pilots for homicide.

In response, Sharkey published a blog, which argued against the scapegoating of two innocent American aviators in an atmosphere of hysterical anti-Americanism, and criticized Brazil's attempt to cover up the real problems in its air space over the Amazon.

Sharkey's blog, which is the putative subject of the lawsuit against him, had a major role in sorting out the truth and pressuring the Brazilian judge to release the American pilots who were held for two months. In fact, Sharkey was proved right when the United States National Transportation Safety Board issued a report in December 2008 concluding that systemic and operational faults in Brazilian air-traffic control over the Amazon were the probable cause of the collision.

Sharkey was sued for defaming Brazil late last year, but only received an official copy of the complaint, written in Portuguese, on September 16.th In the meantime, however, the Brazilian court proceeded with the lawsuit, and it is expected that he will be convicted. Continued...