The newspaper Folha de São Paulo had access to the draft, which is being developed by the social communications ministry under Franklyn Martins. According to the newspaper, the new agency would have the power to fine companies and stop content from being broadcast if considered offensive or prejudiced. It also forbids serving politicians from owning radio and TV stations, although it is not clear whether this would also include those who have already been given presidential concessions to own a broadcasting station. Currently, 160 Brazilian congressmen have been granted such a concession.
Martins told journalists last month that President Lula da Silva would leave the bill ready for Rousseff. In case Rousseff decides to go ahead and send the bill to congress, it could be altered or even go through public consultation. Last week, Lula told journalists that Rousseff would go ahead with the bill, despite her campaign promise she would not attempt to control media content.
Although Brazil's telecommunications and radio sectors need clearer regulations, not least regarding the retracting of offensive or erroneous content, critics say regulations should be set by broadcasters themselves rather than by the government. They argue that if a governmental body, such as the ANC, enforces regulations, as Martins proposes, the government would have the power to control media content and dictate to private companies what can be broadcast to Brazilians to the detriment of democratic debate.
The task of turning the draft into law will fall to Paulo Bernardo, Lula's loyal planning minister who will be transferred to the communications ministry under Rousseff. Bernardo is expected to put the final touches to the bill. Martins, a divisive figure due to his radical left-wing views and dislike of Brazil's largest private media conglomerate Globo (he was once sacked from the company), will leave the government, and the social communications ministry will be given to journalist Helena Chagas.
Chagas is now close to Rousseff, but she was even closer to Antônio Palocci, Lula's former finance minister who will become Rousseff's chief of staff when he takes control of the ministry of Brazil's presidency. Chagas wrote the story that cast doubt over the veracity of the testimony of caretaker Francenildo da Silva, who testified that Palocci was a regular in meetings at a mansion in Brasília where the federal police claimed embezzled money was distributed, against Palocci's claim that he had never been in the house.
Chagas revealed that Da Silva had received a large amount of money in his bank account after gaining access to leaked details of Da Silva's bank account with government-owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal. The money turned out to be a pay off from Da Silva's biological father, following a successful paternity suit. Palocci has been recently acquitted from any responsibility for leaking Da Silva's account details, which allowed him to resurrect his political career, first as Rousseff's campaign manager.
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