brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva He has removed the management of all the country’s public media from the previous government. This decision has been driven by how these media treated the information about the attempted coup on January 8. Unlike the private media, called “protesters” to the Bolsonaro hordes that tried to take over the headquarters of the three public powers in Brasilia.
The decision, adopted last Friday night but released on Sunday, includes the appointment of journalist Kariane Costa as president of the Brazilian Communication Company (EBC). Among other functions, the EBC is responsible for TV Brazilpublic station that carries out the official transmission of federal government events, National Radiomade up of a network of local public radio stations throughout the country, and Agency Brazila news agency that reports government actions.
The reasons for the transition
The local press highlights that the direction of these media outlets was still in the hands of positions appointed by the previous president, Jair Bolsonarowhose most radical followers stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the seat of the Federal Supreme Court a week ago.
The trigger for the changes would have been the coverage of the assault on the three powers. While most of the Brazilian media referred to Bolsonaro’s supporters as “vandals” or “coup plotters”the public media maintained the term “protesters”, According to government sources quoted by the local newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
Another source explained that they feared even more radical coverage by these media run by Bolsonaro sympathizers and the possible propagation of anti-democratic ideas, or even a technical sabotage to interrupt the broadcasts and appearances of the presidency.
The day after the assault on the three powers, the TV Brasil news issued statements of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of the former president, which was interpreted as a provocation by leaders of the ruling Workers’ Party (PT).
Kariane Costa’s profile
The new temporary president of the EBC It is Kariane Costa, who has worked in the state communication conglomerate for more than ten years. Costa has earned the trust of the Minister of the Social Communication Secretariat of the Presidency, paulo pepperby being part of the transition cabinet.
A workers’ union delegate, she worked as an editor from August 2012 to February 2014 and since then she has worked as a political journalist.
Now Costa must lead the transition process to the new management which will be implemented in the coming months. “I accepted the invitation of President Lula da Silva and Minister Paulo Pimenta to lead, on an interim basis, the transition process for the resumption of the EBC mission. Thank you for your trust!! Together we will rebuild our company!”, the journalist assured on her Twitter account.
Costa had denounced a alleged moral harassment at EBC during the Bolsonaro government, for which the state company tried to fire her under the crime of insults. In November 2021, however, the case went on to be prosecuted by the Comptroller General of the Union, so that later the Human rights commission of the Brazilian Senate to ask to investigate an alleged persecution of workers by the EBC.
Costa’s appointment was the only one publicly announced, but other four women will be part of the transition team: Rita Freire, Juliana Cézar Nunes, Nicole Briones and Flávia Filipini. Only the director of Programming and Content, Denilson Morales da Silva, remains in the post.
The decision was made public in an additional edition of the Official Journal of the Union, signed by Lula and not by Minister Pimenta, who collaborated in the definition of the new cadres. “The composition of the transition process, which brings together employees of the company but also representatives of society and professionals in the area, demonstrates our Commitment to public communication and to the integrity and strengthening of the EBC“Pimenta raised in relation to the changes in state communication.
