Brazil ensures net neutrality

After years of discussion and six months being discussed as an urgent subject in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, the set of laws regulating the internet (known as the civil landmark of internet) was approved this Tuesday. The law still has to be approved by the senate, where the government has a more comfortable position. Its approval means the president was able to control the allies rebellion and also puts Brazil on the map of an international discussion over the issue of network neutrality (that has been opposing Internet Service Providers, as the Telecom companies, and Internet Companies, such as Google).

Activists celebrate the approval of the internet law
that ensures net neutrality in Brazil

Folha de S. Paulo front page today was about the law passing. The newspaper said it puts Brazil in the vanguard of the internet, calling the law a "constitution" of the internet. It mentions, though, that the text changed after the lobby of Google to remove the determination to nationalize data centers for all the business conducted in Brazil  -- which would impose that all virtual services had a local server in Brazil. This demand was not on the original project and was put in the text after the NSA scandal broke the news. It was supposed a political statement from Brazil, against the American surveillance.

O Globo said the law puts Brazil in the vanguard of the internet. The newspaper front page, though gave more space to the scandal on Petrobras, which just had one of its former directors, Paulo Roberto Costa, arrested because of a overpriced purchase of a refinery in Pasadena. The president of Petrobras, Maria das Graças Foster gave an exclusive interview for O Globo and stated it will investigate thoroughly the issue.

On the economic ground both newspapers also mentioned the reaction after Brazil had its national rating cut by Standard & Poor's. Contrarily to what might be expected the stock market and the currency reacted positively, because the market have already taken into account such measure from the rating agency.

Finally to complete the subjects covered in the media last week, the proximity of the 50 years of the military coup in Brazil motivated a series os special reports on the main media. Folha de S. Paulo again made a multimedia rich, Snowfall-like, special report on the military dictatorship, which is very interesting. The newspaper covers the whole process that led to the coup, trying also to put in context the role of the Brazilian left at that time, which was also fighting for its own revolution. The story also pointed out to the unsettled case of the amnesty to military torturers and brings the transcriptions of the US ambassador and presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both supporting the military coup. O Globo is publishing during this week a series of stories about the coup.

Story about dictatorship crimes and photo on this year's protests are the main winners of the ExxonMobil Journalism Prize

Today the results of one of the most traditional journalism prizes in Brazil was released, the "Prêmio Esso", sponsored by ExxonMobil. The main news story prize was sent to the story about the secret files of the DOI-CODI (the department responsible for repressing people opposing the dictatorship in Brazil, that lasted from 1964 until 1985). The news story came in a very important moment in Brazil when the country is currently analyzing crimes committed during the tough period through the works of the Truth Commission (Comissão da Verdade). It worth mentioning that president Dilma herself is a victim of the dictatorship, having been tortured and arrested during the period.

Concerning that matter, the Truth Commission started today the process of exhumation of the body of former president João Goulart. Recent documents showed that the president (the last of the democratic period that preceded the dictatorship of 1964) was constantly monitored by the military. For those reasons, Goulart’s family asked in 2007 for an investigation to see if his premature death in 1976 (at the age of 57 years) supposedly from a heart attack was actually caused by poisoning.

The Prêmio Esso also recognized the picture (above) from Victor Dragonetti Tavares, that was the first one that actually put the mid year protests on the cover of the major Brazilian newspapers. The image shows a wounded cop trying to control a protester while defending himself from the crowd. The interesting thing about this picture is that it preceded the major repressing action from the police that ended with several protesters wounded. I remember clearly seeing editorials from major newspapers (I don’t recall now whether it was Folha de S. Paulo or O Estado de S. Paulo) actually calling for more police action on the protests that at that time were causing major traffic jams in São Paulo.

After that picture the police acted, but disproportionally, and images of ordinary people wounded gained the social networks and spread the protests concentrated in São Paulo and Rio to the whole country. This triggered a support for protesters that led to the government response and the reduction of the public transport fare (that were the main reasons for the initial protests).

Both stories are in the core of Brazil’s media attention right now. Today the main subject being analyzed by the press is the judgment of Mensalão (the corruption scheme denounced in 2006 during the 1st term of president Lula, that basically consisted in the purchase of congressmen votes) that involves several of the Worker’s Party (PT) important members.The corruption is clearly one of the motives of the protests. So far the news is that the supreme court maintained what was ruled before and is asking for the immediate arrest of several of the 27 convicted persons, but I’ll wait to see tomorrow’s newspapers to write more about the subject.

The general tone around Dilma Rousseff

Nobody yet knows at what extent this year’s protests will have an effect on the next year’s presidential elections. There were those who said it would impede Dilma from being reelected and I certainly believe it was one thing that gave Eduardo Campos and the its party the PSB the final push towards moving out of the government and launching a presidential candidacy for president.

One thing is for sure, the tone of the press around Dilma could certainly be one indicator that preceded the protests. Initially the press was very positive around Dilma. The president got compliments from O Estado de S. Paulo in her first interview. Dilma was somewhat protected by the press during her first year as a president, when she had to cut six ministers accused of corruption.

The honeymoon started to end throughout the second year and definitely ended in the end beginning of this year, when it became clear that the country’s economy stability had been thrown away by the president, in the name of maintaining (artificially) the unemployment low and the president’s popularity high. The main indicator that this was the case was the lost of the grip in inflation, that obliged Dilma to push back one of her main objectives in the economic policy (of bringing the Brazilian interest rates to international levels).

Today, Ricardo Noblat, columnist of O Globo, elevates even more the tone against the president, siding her with two other Brazilian contradictions already unmasked: the former senator Demóstenes Torres (that was a symbol of honesty until he was linked with Carlos Cachoeira, a criminal that run illegal gambling business across the Brazil’s center-west region) and Eike Batista (a Brazilian billionaire, featured as one of the richest men in the world, and now facing bankruptcy). Noblat says Dilma’s contradiction is her fame as a tough manager, highly promoted by Lula. Since none of the big infrastructure improvements were launched due to a lack of managerial and political abilities, Noblat says it is a big contradiction that Dilma still has a chance of being elected for a second term.

This certainly gives another glimpse of what will be the general tone against the president next year, and again can also indicate that the amount of effort, and money, that PT will have to spend for this reelection will be much more than expected two years ago.

Oil and beagles

As predicted, the pre-salt oil auction had just one proposal, from a group headed by Petrobras. The other companies are the Chinese CNPC and Cnook, the anglo-dutch Shell and the French company Total. As Folha de S. Paulo revealed today the major companies ended up all together in the same group and that inhibited other competitors.

Despite lack of bids in the auction, president Dilma celebrated the result and rebuffed the critic to the model that puts a lot of responsibility on Petrobras (that is currently with a constrained budget). According to the president, the model has the merit of guaranteeing that 85% of the revenue from Libra oilfield will remain with the Brazilian state (which has 51% of Petrobras voting shares). The government also announced it will be with watching closely the oil exploration in the pre-salt, after O Globo denounced the subject was not covered by the auction summon.

Beagles

Enough with oil. I would like to comment a piece of news that is trending in the social media among Brazilian users. It’s the invasion of a research laboratory last Friday by a group of animal rights activists. They removed 178 beagles from the institution at dawn on Friday, saying they were victims of maltreatment.

Immediately after the news broke, on the weekend, hundreds of animal lovers shared their thoughts on the cruelty with animals. The scientific community responded saying there are few alternatives for research in some cases and condemned the invasion. Today O Globo says the federal deputy Ricardo Tripoli is holding a couple of beagles in his house and is advising the other 15 to 20 members of the group on legal matters. They will be indicted for the invasion of the laboratory. The police is also investigating the complaint of animal maltreatment.

Folha de S. Paulo, on the other hand is reporting that a beagle dog breeder in São Paulo, that the activists think is the provider of the laboratory’s dogs is in constant fear of having his own property invaded. He has already hired private security to prevent possible protests.

The subject is trending in social networks and generating heated discussions in each post favorable or contrary to the activists. In my point of view, invading a private property is not the way to deal with the subject. The activists themselves told they had inside information about the abuses. The best way then would be to proceed with the formal criminal complaints.

Even though I’m obviously contrary to animal maltreatment I also support experiments in animals, when there are no other alternatives. I mean, if that is what it takes to develop medicine that will save human lives, than it’s all right with me. Humankind has been killing and using animals for survival purposes since ancient times, and that is not likely to change soon.

Economic stability as a big issue on next year's presidential elections

The pre-salt auction has again gained the main pages of Brazilian newspapers today, but I’ll leave the subject for tomorrow’s post. For now, it’s suffice to say that there are occurring some protests and that according to Folha de S. Paulo and Valor Econômico, this probably could be the first and last auction in which Petrobras will be obliged to participate with at least 30% of participation in each area. As mentioned in a previous post in this blog, the state controlled oil company is short on cash, crippled by the government’s policy.

What I would like to call attention to is the interview of Eduardo Giannetti, economic advisor of Marina Silva to Folha, saying that she would stand for a lower state presence in the economy. It does not mean that she will take the liberal path, but probably that she would be more market friendly.

The interview is also another way of saying that the economy is going to be a big topic in next year presidential election. Giannetti praised the last term of Fernando Henrique Cardoso as a president (1999-2002) and the first term of Lula (2003-2006). After that the macroeconomic tripod (fiscal responsibility, inflation control and floating currency) was somewhat abandoned, he said.

Introductions

For eight years, I worked at some of the most important Brazilian newspapers, writing business stories. Now, because of a scholarship from Instituto Ling to study a Master in Communication Course in IE School of Communication, in Madrid, I went back to being solely a reader of Brazil’s media.

Since I never liked to read the news without discussing, I decided to open up this blog, sharing some comments on what is on the main news in Brazil. I invite all visitors to join the conversation, post their comments and suggest themes for discussion on this page.

In this brief introduction, I would like to suggest some basic readings to understand Brazil in some depth. There are four classic books that explain the political, cultural and economic history of Brazil that I think give some basics about the country.

The first one of them would be "Roots of Brazil", from Sergio Buarque de Holanda, a Brazilian historian that happens to be the father of the famous Brazilian singer Chico Buarque de Holanda. Here you’ll find some important insights about the difference of the Portuguese and Spanish colonization in America, crucial to understand the differences in the region and also why Brazil has remained an united country while Spanish colonies divided into multiple countries. One of the reasons being the Portuguese directive of miscegenation, since the men were encouraged to marry Indians and their sons were recognized as Portuguese.

The other precious book to give some ground on Brazil is from Caio Prado Junior, called “Formation of contemporary Brazil”, with some more geographical analysis. The author explains, among other things, the difficulty of building ports on Brazil’s shallow shore and the determination of the gaucho culture on the south because of the wild cattle that started to appear there after the colonization, this book is crucial for those who are more interested in economic history.

From one of the most prominent Marxist authors in Brazil, Celso Furtado, we have the book called “The economic growth of Brazil”, another book with a big economic basis that has a great analysis of the importance of coffee production in the beginning of the 20th century. Finally, for those that would like to have some cultural background there is “The Brazilian People” from anthropologist, and a famous defender of the Indian population, Darcy Ribeiro.