"In Latin America, the theme of social media, the concentration of media ownership, has a direct relationship with the future of our democracies," wrote a few years ago Aram Aharonian, then Vice-President the fledgling satellite TV Telesur. The knot was the role played by the media in promoting the success of dictatorships and their consent first, and then the support given in the 80's and 90's neo-liberal policies of the first democratic governments. Famous was the task carried out by the newspaper El Mercurio in favor of Agusto Pinochet military coup against the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende in 1973. Sociologist Armand Mattelart called the case of Chile "a school event," since the coup was put in place "by the CIA, from multinational corporations and copper electronics and news agencies of the United States in close symbiosis with the opposition media and the local armed forces. " In recent years, with the awakening of Latin America and the emergence of progressive governments in many countries, the issue of democratization of the media joined the political agenda. Priorities, breaking the old monopolies and returning the word to the millions of voiceless for years kept at the margins of political life and information.
A first step was the creation in 2005 of the issuer public Telesur satellite by Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Bolivia in order to overcome the historical lack of information about its neighbors in South American countries. Then the steps for a democratization of the media have multiplied, "Venezuela has regained the space radio, first seized by the oligarchies vassal of U.S. interests, transforming it into a public good. Bolivia has established a network of Indigenous and Radio has launched the public newspaper Cambio. Argentina has broken the monopoly of the Clarin Group and has strengthened the public TV and radio, 'says the Brazilian journalist Beto Almeida. The last stop of the tour was the National Conference on the communication that took place recently in Brazil.
The Brazilian situation is characterized by the unchallenged domain of eleven, among which the Marinho, owner of the Globe. Founded in 1962 by Roberto Marinho, two years before the coup, thanks to the giant U.S. Time-Life, the group became a globe in the years of the dictatorship's main Brazilian communications company, which owns radio, TV and newspapers across the country. Survived the dictatorship of the group remained the main tool to manage the consent of the Brazilian elite. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2002 managed to win the election despite the fierce attacks of the Globo television and newspapers, but in recent years had always sought a balance with this group, so to be appointed as a Minister of Communications their man: former journalist Hélio Costa.
The National Conference on average represented a significant breach in this scenario. Explain Murilo Cesar Ramos, coordinator of the workshop on policies on the communication of the University of Brasilia, "Brazil has a long tradition of conferences on social problems of the country. The first, on health, was in 1941. President Lula in his two terms, has revitalized this tool, but the question of democratization of communication had always been a taboo, so much so that the issue was not of this government program. E 'was therefore a surprise when the World Social Forum in Belem, in January, Lula announced the conference. "
The National Conference on average was the final round of a process of participatory democracy that has lasted several months and involved in 27 stages about 50 thousand local people throughout Brazil. The proposals have been more than 6 thousand, then rearranged in about 1600 and collected in fifteen books from the Getulio Vargas Foundation. The aim was to produce a programmatic platform to be presented to Parliament to address the amendment of legislation on telecommunications. A journey that has not been without obstacles and limitations, especially because the group Globe has tried in every way to derail the initiative. By the social movements there have been highly critical of the government, particularly the choice to attend the conference communications companies in Brazil with a representation equal to that movement: 40 percent of the delegates to-head with the remaining 20 percent to the state. Indymedia Brazil has also highlighted how some laws to reform the sector, such as those on digital television, are already being discussed in Parliament and is unlikely to be taken into account the results of the Conference. Nevertheless, the work of the Conference has not been less fighting and eventually rose 672 proposals.
The main points of conflict have been the issue of social control of the media, the taxation of commercial enterprises to encourage public initiatives and the establishment of clear rules against media concentration and the granting of concessions. The biggest battle was waged by community radio stations, one of the most committed in questi anni per una democratizzazione dei media. «Il problema delle radio comunitarie è che il governo non rilascia autorizzazioni, o le rilascia ai potenti oligarchi locali», spiega Aloisio Andrade di Radio Juventude una radio comunitaria della Rede Abraço. Il fenomeno denunciato è quello del "coronelismo eletronico", la concentrazione in mano a notabili locali di emittenti radiotelevisive che vengono utilizzate per la gestione del consenso e il mantenimento del potere. Oggi in Brasile il 30 per cento dei senatori e il 15 per cento dei deputati sono detentori di concessioni radiotelevisive.
Sarà molto difficile che le proposte vengano approvate dal Parlamento, soprattutto perché toccano interessi molto forti. Sia il giornale O Globo , sia il ministro della Comunicazione, Hélio Costa, appena conclusa la Conferenza si sono precipitati a minimizzarne il lavoro definendolo un « wishful thinking dell'estrema sinistra brasiliana che non avrà risvolti concreti». Di parere opposto la deputata Luiza Erundina e Rosane Bertotti, della Central Única dos Trabalhadores. Erundina, da anni in prima fila per la riforma dei media in Brasile, ha affermato: «questa è una lotta cominciata molto tempo fa, molto prima della conferenza stessa, e il governo non potrà non tenere conto delle proposte elaborate». Bertotti ha messo l'accento sull'impegno prossimo dei movimenti: «non possiamo considerare questa Conferenza come un punto di arrivo, ma come un punto di partenza, a basis for new struggles and to a greater democratization of communication in this country. "
A first step was the creation in 2005 of the issuer public Telesur satellite by Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Bolivia in order to overcome the historical lack of information about its neighbors in South American countries. Then the steps for a democratization of the media have multiplied, "Venezuela has regained the space radio, first seized by the oligarchies vassal of U.S. interests, transforming it into a public good. Bolivia has established a network of Indigenous and Radio has launched the public newspaper Cambio. Argentina has broken the monopoly of the Clarin Group and has strengthened the public TV and radio, 'says the Brazilian journalist Beto Almeida. The last stop of the tour was the National Conference on the communication that took place recently in Brazil.
The Brazilian situation is characterized by the unchallenged domain of eleven, among which the Marinho, owner of the Globe. Founded in 1962 by Roberto Marinho, two years before the coup, thanks to the giant U.S. Time-Life, the group became a globe in the years of the dictatorship's main Brazilian communications company, which owns radio, TV and newspapers across the country. Survived the dictatorship of the group remained the main tool to manage the consent of the Brazilian elite. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2002 managed to win the election despite the fierce attacks of the Globo television and newspapers, but in recent years had always sought a balance with this group, so to be appointed as a Minister of Communications their man: former journalist Hélio Costa.
The National Conference on average represented a significant breach in this scenario. Explain Murilo Cesar Ramos, coordinator of the workshop on policies on the communication of the University of Brasilia, "Brazil has a long tradition of conferences on social problems of the country. The first, on health, was in 1941. President Lula in his two terms, has revitalized this tool, but the question of democratization of communication had always been a taboo, so much so that the issue was not of this government program. E 'was therefore a surprise when the World Social Forum in Belem, in January, Lula announced the conference. "
The National Conference on average was the final round of a process of participatory democracy that has lasted several months and involved in 27 stages about 50 thousand local people throughout Brazil. The proposals have been more than 6 thousand, then rearranged in about 1600 and collected in fifteen books from the Getulio Vargas Foundation. The aim was to produce a programmatic platform to be presented to Parliament to address the amendment of legislation on telecommunications. A journey that has not been without obstacles and limitations, especially because the group Globe has tried in every way to derail the initiative. By the social movements there have been highly critical of the government, particularly the choice to attend the conference communications companies in Brazil with a representation equal to that movement: 40 percent of the delegates to-head with the remaining 20 percent to the state. Indymedia Brazil has also highlighted how some laws to reform the sector, such as those on digital television, are already being discussed in Parliament and is unlikely to be taken into account the results of the Conference. Nevertheless, the work of the Conference has not been less fighting and eventually rose 672 proposals.
The main points of conflict have been the issue of social control of the media, the taxation of commercial enterprises to encourage public initiatives and the establishment of clear rules against media concentration and the granting of concessions. The biggest battle was waged by community radio stations, one of the most committed in questi anni per una democratizzazione dei media. «Il problema delle radio comunitarie è che il governo non rilascia autorizzazioni, o le rilascia ai potenti oligarchi locali», spiega Aloisio Andrade di Radio Juventude una radio comunitaria della Rede Abraço. Il fenomeno denunciato è quello del "coronelismo eletronico", la concentrazione in mano a notabili locali di emittenti radiotelevisive che vengono utilizzate per la gestione del consenso e il mantenimento del potere. Oggi in Brasile il 30 per cento dei senatori e il 15 per cento dei deputati sono detentori di concessioni radiotelevisive.
Sarà molto difficile che le proposte vengano approvate dal Parlamento, soprattutto perché toccano interessi molto forti. Sia il giornale O Globo , sia il ministro della Comunicazione, Hélio Costa, appena conclusa la Conferenza si sono precipitati a minimizzarne il lavoro definendolo un « wishful thinking dell'estrema sinistra brasiliana che non avrà risvolti concreti». Di parere opposto la deputata Luiza Erundina e Rosane Bertotti, della Central Única dos Trabalhadores. Erundina, da anni in prima fila per la riforma dei media in Brasile, ha affermato: «questa è una lotta cominciata molto tempo fa, molto prima della conferenza stessa, e il governo non potrà non tenere conto delle proposte elaborate». Bertotti ha messo l'accento sull'impegno prossimo dei movimenti: «non possiamo considerare questa Conferenza come un punto di arrivo, ma come un punto di partenza, a basis for new struggles and to a greater democratization of communication in this country. "
Luca Muzi - Brasilia
Liberation, January 3, 2010
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