Demanding Publicity
By Luisa Leme Posted Mon, Feb 5 2007
Globo television reporter Guilherme Portanova arrives at the television station after being released by kidnappers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the early hours of Monday, Aug. 14, 2006. Brazil's most notorious organized crime group had kidnapped Portanova and forced his station to broadcast a video early Sunday in which the gang calls for improvements in the country's prison system. (AP Photo/Ernesto Rodrigues, Agencia Estado)
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TV Globo reporter Guilherme Portanova and technician Alexandre Coelho Calado stopped as usual for coffee and breakfast only two blocks from their station in Sao Paulo, Brazil last Aug. 12. They never made it to work. They were taken by two armed men to the street. Robberies are not entirely uncommon for TV workers. In fact, the reporters were robbed of their camera and equipment one month earlier. But, when they were asked to get inside a car, and nothing was taken from the TV Globo van, the reporter and his partner realized it was something more serious than a robbery.
The purpose of the kidnapping: exchange a journalist’s life for broadcast space on the largest and most visible TV channel in Brazil. After 15 hours of death threats, the criminal organization, known as PCC, Primeiro Comando da Capital (First Command of the Capital), released Calado with a mission. He was dropped off in front of Globo headquarters with a taped announcement. The organization demanded that TV Globo must broadcast the tape in order for them to release Portanova alive.
Immediately after learning of the kidnapping, TV Globo contacted the International News Safety Institute (INSI), an organization located in Brussels with which the TV station is affiliated. According to TV Globo, the institution told them that when death is certain and deadlines are immediate, there is no other alternative than to show the video to the authorities and concede to the criminals’ demands. The INSI also recommended that TV Globo seek advice from the AKE Group, a professional security company, which gave similar advice. After the police reviewed the video, the television channel broadcast it to Sao Paulo at midnight on August 13. PCC released Portanova 24 hours later. He arrived in the newsroom unharmed, but shaken. A month later, he told the press that TV Globo’s decision saved his life.
Rodney Pinder, director of the INSI, validates the advice given to TV Globo. “Broadcast or publication of a video or criminal statement under such duress has no meaning or implication for the broadcaster or newspaper,” Pinder says.
The video, which was sent to other media in Sao Paulo, showed a man in a black hood carrying guns and ammunition. The man stood in front of a banner that displayed the message, “Because of the injustice in prisons,” and read a statement that criticized the conditions Brazilian jail system, calling it a “human dump.” In the video, he asked for a more humane system and declared, “We are not against the government, but we are against injustice, power abuse, bad treatment and violence against the poor classes in this country.”
The kidnappings were not the PCC’s first acts of violence in San Paulo. Their influence has been evident in the city since the gang was formed in 1993 in response to what they call an overcrowded, unsanitary and unjust prison system. The gang has asserted its power over the justice system in a series of violent attacks and prison riots. Three months before the TV Globo kidnapping, PCC was responsible for a wave of violent attacks on the city that are estimated to have killed more than 150 prison guards, police and prisoners, though the exact numbers are not confirmed. The PCC torched 82 buses and vandalized 17 banks with firearms and homemade bombs, nearly paralyzing the city and creating an overwhelming sense of insecurity. The attacks, which were in response to a plan to transfer imprisoned PCC gang members from the city to a remote prison, caused a media frenzy, and the PCC was given more media play with each attack. TV Globo had some of the most extensive coverage of the attacks, and Portanova covered much of the events.
It is clear why PCC chose TV Globo as the outlet for its message. It is the most watched TV channel in the country, and faithfully covered PCC attacks in the past. TV Globo broadcast information about the May 2006 attacks in breaking news format, interrupting their program schedule several times to report new events in the city and interview police and state authorities. Each day had more news coverage than the last. By June, TV Globo editors decided internally not to mention PCC’s name anymore, referring to the episodes as “actions of organized crime in Sao Paulo.” Others media outlets followed suit, indicating TV Globo’s influence in Brazil’s news industry.
Journalists in Sao Paulo are aware of the possibility for violence and the risk of being robbed or assaulted. However, kidnapping and attacks from organized crime are unusual. Although Tim Lopes, another TV Globo journalist, was murdered on the job by drug dealers years ago, the Brazilian media hadn’t previously faced such a direct threat with specific demands from criminal organizations as it did in August.
The recent kidnapping and threats have forced Brazilian media to deal with the urgent issue of journalists’ security. It has created dialogue among Brazilian media institutions about kidnapping and risks to freedom of speech in the country.
The Brazilian investigative journalism association, Abraji, created after the death of Tim Lopes, declared that the state and municipal governments of Sao Paulo and the federal administration no longer provide the minimum conditions necessary to exercise freedom of speech in the country. The Sao Paulo Journalism Union also stated that the aggravation caused by the wave of violence in Sao Paulo clarified the lack of consolidation of citizens’ rights. The union condemned “the use of a social speech by a criminal organization that affronts the basic rights of the people and spreads terror among the population.”
During the week following the kidnapping, several Brazilian media representatives discussed the security issue and demanded reforms in the jail system and security policy, calling attention to the marginalization of some social groups in the public discourse. They reinforced the state government and media’s responsibility to assure the free practice of the profession, offering good working conditions to journalists and media professionals.
Such dialogue among professionals indicates that journalists from Brazil may be encountering new needs to make news in the country. Broadcast reporters who work in Sao Paulo don’t believe that they are in greater danger, however, the environment in TV Globo’s newsroom has changed. Depending on the city area to which they are assigned, the reporting teams are now joined with security crews.
Pinder says that any incident like the kidnapping undermines freedom of speech, calling attention to the need for governments to act determinedly against those who terrorize or kill journalists. “If governments stay silent while journalists are attacked and threatened, they effectively collude with the criminals,” he says. “It is an international scandal that in almost 900 cases of murder of journalists and other news media staff over the past decade, fewer than 100 have resulted in any prosecution.”
In November 2006, the INSI provided safety training to 100 Brazilian journalists, half in Rio de Janeiro and half in Sao Paulo. The training focused on local conditions and included weapons familiarization, personal security orientation, and investigates the causes of riots and how different security forces deal with them, helping journalists to analyze risks when reporting a riot or civil disorder as well as assisting in better preparation for such assignments.
Pinder advises all journalists in Brazil to seek professional safety training and encourages employers to provide it. “Awareness of the risks and of possible self-protection measures are the most important practical steps any journalist can take in conditions of danger, whether real or potential,” he says. “Safety training must be part of every journalist's education.”