Brazzil - Nation - June 2004
 

A new set of rules released this year for community radio has prompted critics to once again compare the Brazilian airwaves with its agrarian land...both dominated by the colonial latifundario mentality, which divides up a resource (in this case either land or bands of broadcast frequency) and distributes it among an elite group, which in turn continues to support the system of exclusivity.

Brazilian radio policy continues to favor large-scale interests over community-based radio, and small-scale operators say that threatens democracy in the country.

Given the populism from which current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign emerged, proponents of community radio had hoped for more favorable treatment, but recent indicators show that's not the case.

The recently enacted norms were fashioned by the previous administration’s Minister of Communications yet given force by the current minister, Eunício Oliveira. They include the following aspects which community radio proponents find repugnant:

1) Transmitting radio signals without official authorization continues to be a crime punishable by jail. Thanks to this legislation ANATEL (the national telecommunications agency) and the Federal Police are able to continue closings of community radio stations.

This attitude toward the “subversives” who run radio stations recalls the days of the dictatorship and censorship. Early free radio emerged during the waning years of the dictatorship (early 80’s). As it was very left wing, broadcasts were begun tentatively due to the fear of violent repression.

Yet there was little action against such community stations on the part of the government. Ironically, today’s campaigns are much more organized and effective at shutting down small, unauthorized stations.

2) Community radio stations have been granted channels which are outside the range of normal radio dials, making them effectively out of reach of larger audiences.

Lula’s government granted community radio two new channels (87.7 and 87.5 MHz), both off the standard dial of 88 to 108 MHz. In this way the government can appear to be favorable to community radio without threatening the larger stations’ dominance of the airwaves.

3) To be authorized, the range of a radio station’s signal must reach at least 1 km. This corresponds to certain wattage of transmitters whose prices are generally out of reach of small-scale operators. Some of these stations use homemade transmitters able to be mounted in a garbage can, small-scale and low-tech.

The minimum transmission range is not, in fact, a matter of law, but rather of a policy decree of the Ministry of Communications. It could have been modified or eliminated had the ministry chosen to do so, revealing the current administration’s continued preference for large-scale commercial operators.

4) Authorized community radio stations are prohibited from advertising products of major, national companies. They may accept only cultural support from local supporters and can only broadcast the name and institutional messages on behalf of their supporters.

The dilemma seems to be how community stations can survive without either national funding to support them or the ability to raise their own funds through advertising.

5) Lula’s government has continued the shutdowns of local radio. Instead of legislative reform to bolster the community radio system (dozens of proposals are currently in legislative channels), the current administration seems content to strengthen the regulative bureaucracy as it is.

The sentiments of the Left regarding the attitude of the government toward community radio are well summarized in this letter from Jose Luiz do Nascimento Soter, National Coordinator of ABRACO (Brazilian Association of Community Broadcasting) to Miro Teixeira, former Minister of Communication whose draft rules were adopted by the present minister:

“Keeping in mind the unquestionable victory of a popular and democratic campaign for the country, it is necessary to have a discussion of a new model for the relationship of the state with the democratic and popular institutions of organized civil society.

"In this sense, the national ABRACO is communicating…that ANATEL is intensifying its actions against community radio in the entire country, provoking reactions of frustration and deception in the communities that believed that with the election of a democratic and popular project, the relations between the public power and broadcasters would be at a level, at the minimum, of constitutional respect and within the limits of legality, without respectable citizens being treated as bandits might be treated: summarily and without a right to self defense.

"Colleagues who coordinate state ABRACOs have told us that the agents of ANATEL have promoted true terrorism, explaining that the directors of the agency have a five-year mandate and that they will continue shutting down and apprehending equipment.

"Faced with this and in accord with the report of the Transition Team, which suggested the immediate suspension of the repression until the Government finds a solution for the more than 8 thousand cases buried in the Mini Com annex in Brasilia, we ask that Your Excellency take immediate measures so that ANATEL performs in keeping with the new democratic and political orientation, including the intervention of the Agency if it is thus necessary so that the same comes to serve the expectation of those who elected a new hope for Brazil.”

This material was distributed by News from Brazil, a service from Sejup (Serviço Brasileiro de Justiça e Paz—Brazilian Service of Justice and Peace). To get in touch with them, send a message to sejupsub@lycos.com.