THE Brazilian Communication Company (EBC) celebrates 17 years of foundation this October. In almost two decades, it removed from paper the constitutional requirement for complementarity of communication systems and seeks to meet the challenge of strengthening democracy and guaranteeing the right to information. 
According to communication experts, a company along the lines of EBC It is provided for in the 1988 Federal Constitution and reinforces democracy in the country.
“The public broadcasting service is essential to strengthen democratic societies, acting as an independent system focused on the public interest. Strategic to guarantee diversity of content and social participation in defining what will be broadcast”, assesses journalist Nélia Rodrigues Del Bianco, professor of the Postgraduate Program at the Faculty of Communication at the University of Brasília (UnB).
According to her, research carried out by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 2021 demonstrated that in locations where there is more public radio and TV service, there is a greater democratic quality. According to the study, “when there is more politically balanced news on offer, there is naturally an antidote to partisanship and polarization in society. In other words, when public service is strong, fewer citizens think about authoritarian solutions and there is more interest in participating in public life”.
“It is extremely important for Brazil to have a communications company like EBCbecause this is a necessary path to guarantee an information structure for the population outside the criteria of commercial media conglomerates”, points out professor of journalism at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) Pedro Aguiar, researcher of news agencies.
EBC is present in all major coverage in the country, with a priority focus on society and all its plurality – Tânia Rego/Agência Brasil
The state-owned company was created on October 24th, with the publication of the Decree No. 6,246signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, creating the EBC and approving its statute.
For the CEO of EBCJean Lima, the company celebrates 17 years of commitment to access to information, culture, diversity and quality entertainment for all Brazilians.
“The date is a milestone, the result of the dedicated work and competence of each of the employees who make the company function every day. We are experiencing a very positive cycle of resuming public communication and strengthening our vehicles and brands. May the coming years be even better.”
Communication tripod
For the coordinator of the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication (FNDC), Admirson Medeiros, the EBC It is the instrument to guarantee the principle of complementarity that is provided for in the Constitution. He highlights Article No. 224 with the determination that “it is the responsibility of the Executive Branch to grant and renew concessions, permissions and authorizations for the sound and image broadcasting service, observing the principle of complementarity between private, public and state systems”.
“THE EBC is important to complete the tripod of communication in Brazil defined by the Constitution, with the promotion of public communication, which requires independence from the market and government, public financing, social control and autonomy”, agrees Rita Freire, former president of the Board of Trustees from the EBC.
The council was extinguished by Michel Temer’s government (2016-2018). For her, the construction of public communication “was banned” with the decision and the legal, institutional and structural consequences are felt to this day, as seen in the difficulties of the working group aimed at discussing alternatives that resulted in the proposal of the National Participation System Social in Public Communication (Sinpas), which registration is open.
Admirson Medeiros also regrets the closure of the Board of Trustees and says that the FNDC has worked to “re-guarantee the participation of civil society in the construction of content and guidance for the company.” He argues that “to be public there must be the participation of civil society.”
Fair and balanced
Professor Nélia Del Bianco highlights that the importance of public communication is not consensual in Brazilian society, “as part of the human right to fair and balanced communication”.
According to her, the erroneous perception remains among some social groups that there are two types of broadcasters: private and state-owned. “And in general, state, educational and public broadcasters are associated, such as EBC the lack of quality and autonomy in relation to instances of government power”, he comments.
“I realize that we need to walk a little further as a society to understand the role of public broadcasting and stop thinking that it is an idea out of place in the Brazilian reality”, says the academic, recognizing “the efforts of EBC in approaching the concept, separating its operations between public and state, but always living with doubt about the ability to be objective, above the governmental issue.”
The record of photographer Paulo Pinto, from Agência Brasil, demonstrating in favor of the free pass, in São Paulo, was the winner of the Vladimir Herzog Amnesty and Human Rights award this year. Photo: Paulo Pinto/Agência Brasil
Pedro Aguiar, from UFF, recalls the importance of public transport vehicles EBClike the TV Brasilthe TV Brazil Internationalradio stations, National Radio Agency and the Brazil Agency.
“There are numbers that prove that Agência Brasil is the sector within the EBC with greater capillarity within the Brazilian media market, because its content is reproduced by literally thousands of other vehicles, from large portals and newspapers to small journalistic sites in the interior or in small and medium-sized cities”.
In addition to public vehicles, social networks, foreign language services and photography, the EBC counts on the Gov Channelthe Gov Agency and the Gov Radiofocusing on government information in programs such as The Voice of Brazil and Good Morning Minister.
Reach of public communication
Between January and July this year, the Brazil Agency was accessed by 26 million users. An average of 3.7 million per month and had 73,677. The agency has a collection of more than 200 thousand photos, used free of charge by all national media outlets.
THE TV Brasil reached 38 million people in the first half of the year and is the fifth most watched broadcaster in the country. Focused on inclusion and accessibility, the broadcaster leads the broadcast of programs with Libras (16 hours per week of the house’s productions) and with audio description (27 hours per week). All programming has closed captioning.
There are other superlative numbers in EBC. The AM and FM stations of National Radio and from MEC Radio In January of this year alone, they reached 390,000 listeners in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro. In addition to these cities, there are broadcasters in Alto Solimões (AM) Belo Horizonte, Recife, São Luís and São Paulo, in addition to Amazon National Radio (on short waves) with programming for the states that form the Legal Amazon.
