Editorial

THE POWER AND VULNERABILITY OF EBC

The Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC) is a state-owned organization dedicated to public communication and threats against public communication are, in fact, threats against Brazilian democracy. The communication policy implemented by the federal government is currently not republican and follows private logic. We are witnesses of this investment in every manifestation that belittles the public interest, whether in the government's refusal to prevent and fight the Covid-19 pandemic, through campaigns and public debates, or in the practices of dismantling the EBC, or in the contempt for professionals and practices of journalism inherent in democracies.

The inclusion of EBC in the National Privatization Program of the Bolsonaro Government is, paradoxically, the ratification of the importance and power of the Company, insofar as it is comparable to Eletrobrás and Correios - equally strategic and desired companies by private capital. Therein resides its power, insofar as, although maintained by the Executive, it conveys differentiated information and entertainment products without obeying the market and the rulers. Therefore, from the government's point of view, this power needs to be curtailed. But it is the opposite: as a public communication system, the EBC must increase the visibility of the powers of the Republic, as well as the political, economic and social problems, in addition to promoting Brazilian culture in all its peculiarities.

In 2007, TV Brasil was created and, in 2008, Law 11.652 created the EBC, completing the requirement of art. 223 of the Constitution that so well established the need for integration between three communication systems: public, private and state. The Company replaced Radiobras and was installed to respond to the public interest without submitting to market demands or the obedience of rulers. The operation of a Deliberative Council made up of representatives of society, the State and the market would guarantee this objective. In 2009, the country advanced in the debate on public communication and the right to information with the holding of the only National Communication Conference. However, from 2016, with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, a setback in these achievements was established.

The decision to privatize – or even extinguish – the EBC is the culmination of these attacks and provoked an important movement that mobilized universities, research groups, entities and parties to overturn the proposal. Privatizing the public communication system is disobeying the principles of the Constitution and disregarding Brazilian citizenship. It is to exclude a public space for the circulation of independent information located between the lucrative products of the communication market and the strategic dissemination of government information.

In these last 14 years, the operation of the EBC has informed the State and the market of its strength and capacity to fulfill the objectives of its foundation, despite the financial and technical limitations. It then became a privileged target of authoritarian actions to the extent that, even maintained by state investment, it did not belong to the government. For that, there was NBR (now shamefully merged with TV Brasil) and the bureaucracy of hundreds of communication offices. The boundary between the public and the private in the relations between the State and society is given through news, advertising, events and speeches, and the EBC acts in this balance.

At this moment, the proposed privatization of EBC has been justified by unusual comparisons with the market (deficit, lack of profitability, low ratings, wages), as if there were some kind of company that could be compared to it. As if these were the problems. In fact, the problem resides in its potential strength, in its autonomy in relation to the production of contents. There is no negotiation for this: it needs to be perversely extinguished.

A good part of the team that founded OBCOMP participated, between 2013 and 2014, in the survey of Monitoring and Content Analysis of TV Brasil Programming, by agreement between UFRGS and EBC. The research analyzed the programming of TV Brasil during twelve months and the resulting reports pointed out the potential of the station and, consequently, of the EBC, regarding its role in Brazilian society, due to the plurality of informative, scientific, educational, artistic and cultural contents. differentiated cultural aspects resulting from regional and Latin American production. The countless technological limits at the time were overcome by approaching sensitive and complex themes related to behavior, sexuality, gender, violence, politics, economics, for example. Its children's programming focused on educators, parents and children. To this day, TV Brasil remains the only free-to-air TV with children's programs.

The journalist Tereza Cruvinel, who chaired the EBC from 2007 to 2011, points out that the market's interest in privatizing EBC may be in the Company's real estate, a warning of possible large investments that the government will have to make. She asks: “Who will produce and distribute Voz do Brasil? Who will cover, with broadcasting the signal to other broadcasters, official acts, including the international trips of presidents? Who will set up the national radio and television broadcasts? The list is long and all these services, if contracted by the private sector, will cost much more than maintaining the company”.

The EBC Defense Front, in full operation, should expand the records that contribute to argue the in favor of this conquest of Brazilian democracy, which houses TV Brasil vehicles and radios: Nacional FM, Nacional de Brasília, Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Nacional da Amazônia, Nacional do Alto Solimões, MEC FM and Rádio ME, in addition to maintaining a network distribution of news and content throughout the country, especially Voz do Brasil. Even with the lack of support and the recent dismantling, Agência Brasil produces free content that supplies thousands of communication vehicles across the country.

Hundreds of institutions and entities mobilized in the EBC Defense Front believe, like this Observatory, that it is about defending the most representative national institution created to make public communication, the Constitution and Brazilian democracy viable.

Porto Alegre, April 19, 2021

Maria Helena Weber
General Coordinator of the Public Communication Observatory