Un po’ di storia
Il rapporto tra gruppi industriali, stampa e dittature militari Latin America has always been constant. The best known case is undoubtedly that of the newspaper El Mercurio who played a central role in creating conditions conducive to Agusto Pinochet's military coup against the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende in 1973. Sociologist Armand Mattelart on the case said that Chile was "a school event," since the coup was put in place "by the CIA, from multinational corporations and copper electronics and news agencies of the Member America in close symbiosis with the media and the opposition of local armed forces. " At the same time
success of this power bloc in the Democratic Forces si veniva affermando la consapevolezza della complessità del problema dell’informazione. Infatti se nei Paesi governati dalle dittature l’informazione era legata alle forze al governo, nel resto del mondo non vi era alcuna conoscenza di quanto stava accadendo in America Latina. I flussi di informazione erano a senso unico nord-sud e il concetto di “libera circolazione delle informazioni” sostenuto dagli Stati Uniti finiva per uniformare l’informazione invece che renderla più pluralista. Erano, infatti, le industrie culturali occidentali ad avere la capacità produttiva necessaria ad imporre i loro prodotti sui mercati internazionali.
Alla libera circolazione delle informazioni venne contrapposta dai movimenti democratici the idea of \u200b\u200b"cultural diversity". Elaborated among others by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, saw this pair in unity / diversity affirmation of the possibility of a pluralistic and democratic international system information. Mattelart explains, in this combination there was a recognition of the multiplicity of cultures, but also the rejection of particularism in favor of a "shared global responsibility." This was the central claim of the "right to communicate", enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 , under two aspects of access and participation.
The result of this experience of cultural development and political struggle was the relationship Multiple Voices, One World developed in 1980 by the UNESCO commission headed by Nobel Peace Laureate Sean MacBride. The report, highlighting the concentration of media in fewer hands and inequality of the flow of information, called a "new world order of communication and information." The report was, however, a dead letter since the withdrawal of the United States of Unesco Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the UK, and prevents its application in the decades following the gradual liberalization of international trade ended with increasing inequality.
Something is changing in recent years, with the awakening of Latin America and the rise of progressive governments in many countries, the issue of democratization of the media joined the political agenda. Priorities have been identified in the immediately breaking old monopolies and the restitution of the word to the millions of voiceless that for years had been kept at the margins of political life and information.
A first step up was the creation in 2005 of the issuer public Telesur satellite by Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Bolivia with the aim of overcome the historical lack of information about its neighbors in South American countries. After this, the steps for a democratization of the media have multiplied, as highlighted Beto Almeida, Brazilian journalist in an article in Charter Maior: "Venezuela has recovered space radio, first seized by the oligarchies of the vassal U.S. interests, transforming it into a public good. Bolivia has established a network of Indigenous radio and the newspaper has launched public Exchange. Ecuador has renewed public radio and television and has revised the criteria for the allocation of broadcast concessions by attacking the privileges acquired by traditional oligarchies. L’Argentina ha rotto il monopolio del Gruppo Clarin e ha rafforzato le Tv e radio pubbliche».
La nuova “Ley de Medios” Argentina
Il caso Argentino è un esempio tipico della continuità dello Stato nel passaggio dalla dittatura alla democrazia avvenuto negli anni ’80. Un anno prima della sua caduta la dittatura militare argentina, tristemente nota per le migliaia di oppositori politici desaparecidos tra il il 1976 e il 1983, approvò la “Legge sulla radiodiffusione”, anche nota come “Ley 22.285”. La legge approvata nel 1982 non fu modificata dal primo governo democratico di Raùl Ricardo Alfonsín eletto nell’ottobre 83 nor after the reform of the Constitution of 1994. Only in 2009, leading to the adoption of the new "Law on audiovisual communication services."
Strongly supported by President Cristina Kirchner, the new "Ley de Medios" aims to break the monopolies favoring an increase of pluralism and democratization of the media system in Argentina. The legislation now provides for the distinction between the public media, commercial and participatory (co-operatives, NGOs, universities, community media). In this context, no one group can have more than one third of the total space. As for the licensing of television on the territory National, all operators will be able to possess only 10 and not more than twenty-four. In addition, they are not granted permits to those who hold or have held positions of government and the concessionaires will not have more than 30 percent of foreign capital. The law puts a brake on media concentration and favors the production of independent news, thanks to the fact that one third of radio and TV frequencies will be allocated to nonprofit organizations.
The case Brazil
The last stage of this process in Latin America was the National Conference on the communication that took place recently in Brazil. The law that regulates the radio-television sector Brazil is the Brazilian Telecommunications Code (CBT), which was approved in 1962 during the presidency of João Goulart. This substance did not pose any limits on the creation of monopolies and oligopolies. The CBT and its regulations establish the kind of concessions and their length (fifteen and ten years for the TV to the radio) and the organ that was responsible for issuing and renewing licenses: the Presidency of the Republic on the recommendation of the National Council of Telecommunications, in 1967, absorbed by the baby Ministry of Communications. In this way, the conditions were created because the broadcasters were always tied to the executive.
The military dictatorship in Brazil, which began in 1964 with the coup by General Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, left unchanged by bending the law, the assignment of licenses to their needs. Even after the adoption of the Constitution of 1988, art. 220 provides that "the means of social communication can not be directly or indirectly the subject of monopoly or oligopoly," the law was not changed.
explains Venicia De Lima, author of "media power and political crisis in Brazil", "the Brazilian media, which has historically been concentrated, is controlled by a few families, is linked to local and regional political elites and the hegemony of a single group, the Globo organization. "
Currently, families with greater power in Brazil are Abravanel (Sbt Group), Saad (Group Bandeirantes), Civita (Abril Group), Frias (Folha Group) and Marinho (Globo Group). Founded in 1962 by Roberto Marinho, two years before the coup, thanks to the U.S. giant Time-Life, the group became Globe over 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 was the main instrument of management by consensus of the Brazilian elite.
The dominance of these families is often legato a quello che è stato definito “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. Tra i “colonnelli elettronici” troviamo ad esempio l’ex presidente José Sarney, che durante il suo mandato utilizzò spesso lo strumento del rilascio di concessioni per creare consenso intorno al suo governo arrivando a darne 1028.
La Conferenza nazionale sulla comunicazione
Il presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva nel 2002 riuscì a vincere elections 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 Minister of Communications their man: former journalist Hélio Costa. However, in early 2009, President Lula launched the first National Conference on Communication. As explained 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 problem of democratization Communication was always 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 held in Brasilia on average 14 to 17 December was the last round of a process of participatory democracy that lasted several months and has 27 stages involved in local about 50 thousand people in 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 purpose of this process was to produce a programmatic platform to be presented to Parliament designed to guide the work of amending the 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 that the Lula government has called to participate in the communications companies in Brazil.
part of social movements there have been highly critical of the government, particularly the choice to participate in the conference business in the country with representation equal to that of movement: 40 percent of the delegates to head with the remaining 20 percent due 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 take into account the results of the Conference.
However, the work of this conference was no less fought and eventually rose 672 proposals. Among the issues that will now be discussed by Parliament are the creation of a National Council on the communication through which to ensure social control and public choices that affect the media sector, taxation of commercial enterprises to encourage public initiatives and the establishment of clear rules against media concentration and the granting of concessions. Were also approved a ban on applying for holders of radio and television and their relatives, the creation of a national observatory of the media and human rights in order to monitor the "rights of citizens in different Brazilian media" and simplification of legislation for the creation of radio and television community. Community Radio Rede Abraço are gathered in the years one of the most active in social communication and the democratization of the media, unfortunately, often has been penalized by the award of licenses to "colonels" electronic.
Conclusions
is not easy to say what if and which of the proposals developed by the Conference will be approved by Parliament, particularly strong because they affect the interests both of the dominant media groups, and many MPs. Senator Lobão Filho member of the same party of the minister Hélio Costa, the PMDB, and owns a television network in the state of Maranhão, after the conference said that "the legislative changes will be harmless and that in any case will not be back ' . While the newspaper O Globo in an editorial he wrote that it is just a "wishful thinking of social movements and the Brazilian left which will have no practical implications."
opposite view is the deputy Luiza Erundina and Rosane Bertotti, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores . La Erundina, che è da anni una delle principali animatrici della battaglia per la riforma dei media in Brasile, ha infatti messo in evidenza come questa sia «una lotta cominciata molto tempo fa, molto prima della conferenza stessa, e il governo non potrà non tenere conto delle proposte che sono state elaborate in un percorso così partecipato». Rosane Bertotti, della Central Única dos Trabalhadores ha invece dichiarato come solo le lotte dei movimenti potranno far vivere le proposte della Conferenza: «noi non possiamo considerare questa Conferenza come un punto di arrivo, ma come un punto di partenza, una base per nuove lotte e per una sempre maggiore democratizzazione della comunicazione in this country. " Certainly the road taken by Brazil should not be interpreted alone, but in a complex process in Latin America.
Luca Muzi - Brasilia
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