Journalist Can Stay, Brazil Says

Brazil’s government decided Friday not to revoke the visa of a New York Times reporter who wrote an article suggesting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a drinking problem.

The decision was made after lawyers for correspondent Larry Rohter wrote a letter to the government saying the article was not written to offend Lula.

Lula’s government said it considered the letter to be an apology and a retraction of Rohter’s story published Sunday, which claimed the president’s drinking was a subject of national concern.

The letter does not contain an apology but says the journalist “never had the intention of offending the honor of the president.” It adds that Rohter has “great respect for Brazil’s institutions and laments the polemic created by his article.”

The newspaper reiterated that there was nothing inaccurate in Rohter’s story but said it was pleased by the government’s decision about the visa.

“The president was offended and, initially, he reacted with a tough measure, revoking the reporter’s visa,” Justice Minister Marcio Tomaz Bastos told reporters. “But I told the president that legally the letter constituted a retraction, and the president said that, in that case, he considered the case closed.”