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5a:
In law, freedom of the media is guaranteed. |
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Comments:
References: Constitution, art. 5. numerous items. Art. 222 specifies that media concerns must be owned (controlled) by Brazilian citizens or by firms established in Brazil.
All legislation pertaining to public concessions (radio and TV) can be found here - http://www.mc.gov.br/rtv/lei/default.htm
Peer Review Comments: Constitutional Ammendment 36, approved in 2002, allows foreign investors a share of 30 percent in media companies - still keeping the control in native hands. Source: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Constituicao/Emendas/Emc/emc36.htm
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5b:
In law, freedom of speech is guaranteed. |
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Comments:
References: Constitution, art. 5, items 4 and 9.
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6a:
In practice, the government does not create barriers to form a media entity. |
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Comments: However, local conditions might (and usually have) a strong influence on whether or not a newspaper or TV station will not find itself running against interference. Also, since in most states the local economy does not create enough advertising to support economically-independent media, most regional newspaper and radio/TV groups are dominated by the same aligarchies that dominate everything else. This is especially true in the Northeast, North, and Central Northern regions.
References: Media (no reporting of barriers have been artificially created).
Peer Review Comments: I would add to this two potential limitations. The first is that broadcasting rights have frequently been traded for political favors. Hence, the media tends to represent political groups. Second, there have been proposals under the Lula government to create a regulatory agency to control the press. While these proposals have not been approved, they are worth watching.
Peer Review Comments: The most important mass media (radio and TV channels) are concessions from the national state. Most of them have been distributed according to political bias, reinforcing the patronage system on the majority of the states. Community Radios, although possible, find it very difficult to get registration. Together with this political bias comes a tendency of concentration without limits of TV channels, radio stations and newspapers under very few business groups' hands.
Peer Review Comments: Such problems erupt mostly in election years. This year, a free newspaper was created in Minas Gerais and a candidate that was criticized by that publication managed to have the electoral court question the legitimacy of the creation of such newspaper. It was seemingly owned by a competing oligarchy.
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6b:
In law, where a media license is necessary, there is an appeal mechanism if a license is denied or revoked. |
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Comments: A radio/TV concession might be revoked for a number of administrative reasons (non-compliance with regulations), all of them subjected to administrative appeal. Appeal to Congress, as a last resort, is always possible.
References: Power invested in Congress to deal with all radio-difusion matters (Constitution, Art. 48, item 12) entails that appeals for revokement are dealt there.
Peer Review Comments: Yes, but very rare, given the political negotiations involved with media licenses.
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6c:
In practice, where necessary, citizens can obtain a media license within a reasonable time period. |
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Comments: As a radio-difusion license is subjected to Congressional approval, times tend to be lenghty.
References:
Peer Review Comments: The proceudre is lenghty and politically biased.
Peer Review Comments: Small community radio stations are the most troubled with that. The proccess is complex and bureaucratic, and such stations have no proper lawyers to go on with the correct paperwork. Many times, they suffer police raids during the waiting period.
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6d:
In practice, where necessary, citizens can obtain a media license at a reasonable cost. |
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Comments: Bureaucratic costs are reasonable, but lobbying Congress might be expensive.
References: www.anatel.gov.br
Peer Review Comments: Does this congressional lobbying require the organization to travel to Brasilia? If so, I would say that imposes quite a burden on some organizations.
Peer Review Comments: Individual citizens can seldom get a media license for broadcast media given the political nature of the process. Much depends, then, on which media you are inquiring about.
Peer Review Comments: It is almost impossible to obtain a media license without a lot of lobbying.
Peer Review Comments: Such fact makes media licenses more readily available to politicians. Earlier this year, Congresso em Foco, an independent web site that covers the Congress, published lists of the congressmen who own or are related to those who own media companies. Folha de S.Paulo also does a very competent job in that area. That happens although the Constitution bans congressmen from owning media licenses.
http://www.congressoemfoco.com.br/Noticia.aspx?id=2324
http://www.congressoemfoco.com.br/Noticia.aspx?id=2396
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7a:
In law, it is legal to report accurate news even if it damages the reputation of a public figure. |
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Comments:
References: It is legal to report accurate news even if it damages the reputation of a public figure according to Article 220 (paragraphs 1 and 2) of the Constitution.
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7b:
In practice, the government or media owners/distribution groups do not encourage self-censorship of corruption-related stories. |
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Comments: This is almost impossible to answer. Since Brazil is an immense country, all sorts of people control the media. Most Brazilian regional media is controlled by oligarchies that exercise all sorts of pressures on their employees. More often than not, they steer the news they produce into this or that direction. However, if one considers so-called "national media", this is free from the federal government's pressures and on the whole not subjected to undue internal pressures. Exceptions might occur.
References: See, eg., Transparencia Brasil "Deu no Jornal" (It Made the News) project (www.deunojornal.org.br), which collects and analizes news on corruption published in 59 daily newspapers and 4 weekly newsmagazines. An average of 4.3 new cases of corruption are reported every day.
Peer Review Comments: This is virtually impossible to answer for the full federation. In many states, there is really only one local media conglomerate, often controlled by political groups. At the level of national media, I disagree slightly, since there have been well reported stories of media bias by the Globo network and Rede Record, among others.
Peer Review Comments: It is not true that the "national media" is not subjected to internal pressures. Except for a few famous independent journalists, they basically reflect the opinion of the owners of the 4 or 5 most important media groups (you just have to hear Radio Bandeirantes for 5 minutes to see how public opinion is industrialized there as an orchestra). Today the media has more independence from the government (but the economic pressure of government advertising and the use of regulatory power is still important, as the recent option for the Japanese standard for digital TV has shown).
Peer Review Comments: We must take note of something. In the major capitals, in major media, the main risks journalists are exposed to are juridical or commercial in nature. When we read those stories where Brazil is classified among the most dangerous places for journalists, we must remember most of the physical attacks happen in the countryside. Brazilian inequalities reflect even in the patterns of self-censorship.
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7c:
In practice, there is no prior government restraint on publishing corruption-related stories. |
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Comments: In many states and especially in municipalities, exercising political and economic pressures is commonplace. The concentration of the media at the hands of politico-economic oligarchies precludes independent reporting in most local media.
References:
Peer Review Comments: There have been lawsuits - many times coming from government officials - suspending the publication of unfavorable news before it's even printed. That happens especially in election time.
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8a:
In law, media companies are required to disclose their ownership. |
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Comments: This is true for any enterprise. Of course, layers of subsidiaries might mask the true ownership of any firm, including those controlling the media.
References: Civil Code (Law 10406/2002).
Peer Review Comments: In fact this concern is widespread regarding some newsmagazines, for example.
Peer Review Comments: Since 2003, the list of electronic media owners is public. Prior to then, it was not. Newspaper owners are still hard to track in some cases, especially in the countryside. Again, Brazilian inequalities are reflected.
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8b:
In practice, journalists and editors adhere to strict, professional practices in their reporting. |
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Comments: The matter of journalists behaving according to a regulated code of conduct has been subject to heated debate. An attempt to promulgate a law regulating journalism as a professional activity failed in 2005. Media controllers are unanimously against it. Opinions are sharply divided among journalists.
In practice, even in the major media, individual journalists enjoy ample discretion and scant monitoring. This is a mixed blessing.
References: There's no overall code of conduct for journalists.
Peer Review Comments: There is no overall code of conduct for journalists, which opens a large space for all sorts of obscure exchanges between journalists and public/private groups.
Peer Review Comments: That's correct. Which leads to varied standards of practice, even in the same companies.
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8c:
In practice, during the most recent election, political parties or independent candidates received fair media coverage. |
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Comments: There is an academic reseach group named Doxa that measures the press coverage and asssesses its neutrality.
References: www.doxa.iuperj.br
Peer Review Comments: This is very hard to measure, but my subjective impression is that no single news organization was completely fair to all candidates, the sum of many media voices may have been roughly fair.
Peer Review Comments: During the most recent elections most of the media has been orchestrated against the candidate Lula. It is enough to look at Folha de São Paulo (see Marcelo Beraba comments on this, he is the ombudsman of Folha), Estado de Sao Paulo, Jornal do Brasil recent editions, our most important newspapers, to see a concentrated attack on Lula (Even when they are commenting on the preference for Lula in some surveys, the comment is like "How is it possible?"). After the first round for president (October 1, 2006), the comment was "this country still has public opinion," as commemorating the work of the media to push for a second round.
If you go to the media in the states, it is worse, depending on the group controlling the local media, you can have different biases. There are other groups that are different from DOXA, like Observatorio da Imprensa (http://observatorio.ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/), show the concentration of the media in Brazil and its political use by the economic elites.
Peer Review Comments: That's correct for major media. But we must remember there are different standards, varying from medium to medium, from state to state. We're much better now than in previous elections - which didn't keep organized partisans from blaming the media for everything wrong that happened during the campaign.
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8d:
In practice, political parties and candidates have equitable access to state-owned media outlets. |
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Comments:
References: There are no significant complaints regarding this issue. The subject was extensively covered in the media between August 8, 2004 and late September 2004.. See Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo and O Estado de S. Paulo.
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9a:
In practice, in the past year, no journalists investigating corruption have been imprisoned. |
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Comments:
References: Lack of reporting.
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9b:
In practice, in the past year, no journalists investigating corruption have been physically harmed. |
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Comments: It is always healthy to keep in mind the immense size of Brazil. Cases (especially relatively mild ones) might happen locally and never be known outside a small town.
References: Two or three local cases were reported.
Peer Review Comments: Most cases happen in the countryside. In major cities and media, threats are legal and commercial.
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9c:
In practice, in the past year, no journalists investigating corruption have been killed. |
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Comments: Reporters Without Borders reports that, "Known as 'Jota Cândido' to his listeners, José Cândido Amorim Pinto was gunned down on the morning of 1 July 2005 in Carpina...[Pinto was] a Carpina municipal council and presenter of an investigative programme for his radio station [and] often reported and commented about corruption cases on the air."
References: http://www.rsf.org/killed_2005.php3?id_article=14343
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