Nominated for the EBC defends treating it as a ‘coup’ by Dilma – 02/01/2023 – Politics

Announced last week for the presidency of the EBC (Empresa Brasil de Comunicação), journalist Hélio Doyle, 72, says that, if it depends on him, the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT) will be treated as a “coup” by the vehicles of the organization.

“If it’s up to me, they’ll keep saying it was a coup. Like it or not. Now, the editorial line of the company, we have to discuss it better. I’m talking about a personal character. We’ll have to discuss it better with the board. For me , it was a blow”, says Doyle, in an interview with Sheet.

When he talks about “continue”, he is referring, for example, to the fact that President Lula (PT) has used this term repeatedly recently, as when referring to former President Michel Temer (MDB) as a “coupist”.

On the last 13th, President Lula dismissed the entire board of directors of the EBC and nominated journalist Kariane Costa for the presidency on an interim basis. Doyle was chosen and announced as the new head of the EBC, but is currently appointed as an advisor to the company.

What is your plan for the EBC? The plan is not mine. Participated in the media transition working group. We want to recover the EBC, because it was dismantled and lost several of its essential characteristics — such as being a public service channel. They tried to turn the EBC into a government propaganda machine. We want to recover that sense of public communication.

How to separate this communication from the government from the public? Separating the two functions. For example, channel 1 broadcasts public broadcast programming and channel 2 broadcasts government communication. When I speak on a government channel, it’s not just to show the president’s speech, the minister’s inauguration. Is not it. It’s having a schedule of interviews, programs, using a little creativity.

Minister Paulo Pimenta [Secom] stated in an interview with Folha that wants to identify fake news about government actions and ask for justice action. Will EBC participate in this process? The minister is speaking from the broader point of view. It is not our role as a company to prioritize fighting fake news. How are we going to fight? Showing the truth and denying lies through journalistic processes.

We know the difficulties, we know the Bolsonarist strategy to demoralize professional journalism and we know the limits of this confrontation. Do you think that person who goes to the barracks door, who prays for a tire, will be influenced by the EBC? Will not. But there is a track that we can conquer.

In what sense to conquer? Clarify. There are several instruments, you can clarify, you can deny. We can show, with data, why it is a lie or why it is false.

You mentioned that you do not intend to reach a Bolsonarist base. What is EBC’s target audience? All others. I like to be realistic, I don’t like to deceive myself. I estimate that 20% of the population is this: who prays for tires, believes that [o ministro] Alexandre de Moraes was arrested, that Lula is already dead and is now a double. It’s not that we don’t want to. If we can get to them, show the reality, great. They say they don’t watch Globo because it’s a lie. Can you imagine people who are government channels? I was just realistic. Now everyone else is our potential audience.

Did President Lula accelerate the change of command of the EBC due to the coverage of January 8th of the coup acts? I wouldn’t say it was just because of that. We watched the previous board [indicada por Bolsonaro]. It wasn’t just the 8th, there was a problem with journalism, a lack of sensitivity. They had several oppositionists to listen to, and then they heard precisely what [senador] Flávio Bolsonaro [PL-RJ]. It’s wrong? Is he not in the opposition? It’s the opposition. But there was a lack of sensitivity there, in a tense moment like the one we are in. Put another one there, a less burnt guy, who doesn’t have the Bolsonaro last name.

There is a discussion of treating the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff as a coup. Is this going to be a line adopted? If it’s up to me, go. If the government says it shouldn’t be treated that way for a reason, it won’t. But if it’s up to me, it was a blow. It is not just the tank in the street, new forms of coup have been developed, in which legal and parliamentary instruments are used to remove a legitimately elected ruler.

Today it is proven that pedaling [fiscais] did not exist. They were a pretext to remove a president who was displeasing Congress. So it’s a matter of design. If it’s up to me, he’ll keep saying it was a coup. Like it or not. Now, the editorial line of the company, we have to discuss better. I’m talking about personal character. Then we will have to discuss further, with the board. For me it was a blow.

The Brazil Agency, linked to the EBC, was recently criticized for having published on its portal a report that used neutral language. Will the EBC use neutral language? Do not. Neutral language was used here before we [a nova diretoria] even arrive. It was used in an article that dealt with the subject, at the request of the interviewees. The article said so, explained it.

Any assumption that this would be a usual practice of the company is, in my opinion, misinformation or bad faith. We received heavy criticism and we received very high praise as well. And that is a government definition. Whatever the government decides, we will discuss based on the decision. We are not obliged to follow the government’s decision, but we will take it into account. My personal position, which is not absolutist, is not to use.

What prevents the government from instrumentalizing the EBC in the same way as Bolsonaro? We do not want to guarantee EBC’s independence, we understand that it is a state company. So it’s not about the independence of the EBC, it’s about the independence of the public side of the EBC. That’s what we want: for him to have autonomy, to have decision, to have diversity. Public broadcasting models in other countries are very diverse, there is no single model. So we are going to find a way.

How to guarantee independence if there is no financial independence? In the same way that the private press guarantees its independence, despite having publicity. Who advertises on Sheet does not control the editorial line of the newspaper. The reasoning is the same. Although the money comes from there, we don’t submit. Now, if you are fragile, you submit.

During the Bolsonaro administration, there were allegations of censorship at the EBC. Will there be a forbidden topic in the company? If it’s up to me, no. We intend to have a truly collegial leadership here. These strategic decisions ‘shall we ban such an issue?’ I’m not the one taking it. And if a ban comes from above, we will resist, we will discuss it. We have a dialogue with the minister [Pimenta], with the president. I’ll give you a real example: when the article about [linguagem] neutral, there were people in the government asking to take it down because it was generating noise.

Who asked to take it out? I won’t tell you that, but there were people from the government talking to the minister there. What could be banned? Is it forbidden to advertise chloroquine on the EBC? Yeah, but things like that. Now I veto people, not put it… Even to give the example of Flávio Bolsonaro. He can join the public channel if he has something relevant [para dizer]. The last name Bolsonaro is not prohibited.

In the Bolsonaro government, soap operas from Record were hired. Will this continue under the new management? We are going to radically overhaul the programming. We are going to carry out a market and audience study in order to make more adequate programming, more typical of a public broadcaster. Novel fit in this? Let’s study. Now we know why Record soap operas were bought, to serve a certain Bolsonarist base audience. This we are not going to do. We are not going to hire programming because we like the seller. This will not happen.

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Helio Doyle
Journalist, worked in newsrooms, was a professor at the Faculty of Communication at UnB for 28 years and served as head of the press office in the Government of the Federal District. He was also head of the Civil House of the DF in the government of Rodrigo Rollemberg, of the PSB.