MEDIA-BRAZIL: Foreign Capital to Boost Local Programming Content

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 1 2002 (IPS) - The Brazilian parliament is set to approve a constitutional amendment that pursues apparently contradictory objectives: opening the media, especially TV, up to foreign investment in order to increase local content in programming.

The bill has already made it through the Chamber of Deputies and is pending ratification in the Senate, where an agreement to which a majority of opposition legislators have adhered should ensure passage this month.

The accord establishes “safeguards,” such as a requirement that editorial control in the media, the selection of TV programming and other key areas of responsibility must remain in the hands of Brazilian nationals, Deputy Walter Pinheiro, of the opposition Workers’ Party (PT), told IPS.

In addition, ruling coalition legislators agreed to approve long-postponed measures like the creation of a Council on Social Communication to design rules and standards, which was provided for by a 1991 law but was never given shape.

The support given the amendment by the leftist PT and other opposition parties surprised the National Forum for Democratisation of Communication and the Brazilian Congress of Film, which group hundreds of organisations, and which are opposed to “the de-nationalisation of a strategic sector.”

The organisations argue that the first step should have been to bring order to a “chaotic” area that lacks rules to govern the incorporation of new technologies.

But a movement of film industry professionals perceived an opportunity to strengthen the presence of local programming on TV.

One of the proposals, which is defended by the giant national TV network Globo, would stipulate that in order to receive foreign investment, media outlets must guarantee a minimum national content of 60 percent. Globo, famous for the soap operas it exports around the world, is the only network that would meet that requisite today.

In some networks, local programming represents less than 20 percent of broadcasting content, according to journalist and TV producer Nelson Hoineff.

The new rules under debate would make it possible to increase that proportion by broadcasting independent and local productions, a long-standing demand of Brazilian TV and film directors and producers.

Foreign capital would thus actually bring more, not less, local programming to TV, which is currently dominated by U.S.-produced programmes and movies.

But the proposed new requirements, besides depending on further legislation that has no guarantee of approval, are “an illusion,” according to researcher James Görgen with the Institute of Communications Research and Investigation in the southern city of Porto Alegre.

The mere fact that Brazilians would hold editorial control and would be in charge of decisions on content would not ensure local programming content, since “the dominant style and vision tend to follow the patterns of U.S. productions,” argued Görgen, who is a member of the National Forum for the Democratisation of Communication.

Nor would ensuring a controlling stake for Brazilian investors guarantee a greater presence for local productions, since foreign investors would not put up funds without having an influence over decision-making. The more necessary foreign capital is to the recuperation of vulnerable media outlets, the more power it will enjoy, said Görgen.

Like its predecessors, the Brazilian constitution, which dates to 1988, bans the participation of foreign capital in the media. The amendment in question would admit foreign interests as minority stake-holders, limiting their participation to a maximum of 30 percent of shares.

The media in this South American country of 170 million is currently facing a serious crisis, with newspapers on the verge of bankruptcy and TV networks burdened by heavy losses, and opening the doors to foreign investment has emerged as a possible solution.

For that reason the amendment, which was first introduced in 1995, has moved through Congress with unusual speed in the past few months, overcoming the resistance of leftist parties, trade unions and communication researchers. When it became clear that the amendment was on its way towards ratification, the PT decided to back the bill, in exchange for guarantees of local control over the media.

“But the war is not yet lost,” the president of the Brazilian Congress of Film, Assunçao Hernandes, told IPS, saying she had not given up hope that the Senate would vote down the amendment.

In any case, said the filmmaker, her organisation – which was created with the aim of bringing about a rennaissance of the national filmmaking industry, nearly extinct by the early 1990s – will continue fighting for the democratisation of the media and for diversity of programming.

More local programming is needed, which would generate more jobs and would put an end to the “straitjacket” by which 93 percent of the national market for films is occupied by Hollywood productions, leading to the exclusion of both Brazilian-made films and movies from other countries, said Hernandes.

One proposal, for example, is to require TV stations to broadcast at least one Brazilian-made film a week – a modest demand, but one that would amount to “a virtual revolution,” said the leader of the filmmakers’ movement.