Editorial

The inclusion of public communication in public institutions is a recent achievement of Brazilian democracy, although it still needs to build its autonomy in relation to the demands of visibility and promotion of governments. Defending public communication is defending the visibility of society in public debate, also fueled by public media.

The process of creating OBCOMP was one of many responses to advances in theoretical reflection strained by the implementation of identified practices, such as disciplines in university curricula; public policies that regulated public media; communication advice experiences; the resumption of struggles for democratization of the media, among other initiatives. Its functioning and the thousands of accesses to the project confirm the decision and investment by UFRGS and CNPq in 2015.

This quick contextualization is imposed when we experience possibilities of privatization of public communication due to the impact of the disqualification of its hard-won practices, demanding the return to reflections and actions that we thought were outdated, that is, defending the public communication as a functioning principle of public institutions and the maintenance of regulatory and professional devices that can ensure their practices.

These reflections are a result of the amazement at the recent decisions of the interim government of Michel Temer – caused by the removal of President Dilma Rousseff by the Federal Senate for up to 180 days –, specifically, the interference of the interim government in the nomination of the presidency of the Brazilian Communication Company (EBC); the incorporation of the Ministry of Communications by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation; and the strategic delimitation of the public debate, as ministries such as Women, Racial Equality and Human Rights, which give visibility to policies and issues of public interest, lose their power and are housed in the Ministry of Justice.

It is understood that policies that privilege public communication and its instruments are mandatory in public institutions and democratic governments. Operating this concept as normative and as a value to be defended means assuming public communication as an indicator of the quality of democracy. In this perspective, the power of communication and public media resides in the combination of two forces: their technical and professional structures must be guaranteed, obligatorily, by the State and their operation must obey criteria of citizenship, social equality, editorial freedom and promotion of social rights.

Currently, we are experiencing tensions that go beyond the theoretical-functional debate around the institution public communication and we are led to defend the maintenance of public policies as well as the defense of its media and products. Surveillance and action are necessary, as the principles that govern public communication, its operationalization, public debate and Brazilian democracy are at stake.

Maria Helena Weber
General Coordinator of the Public Communication Observatory