The Only Voice

A Voz do Brasil only presents the official angle of the facts
and seems to be hated by most people it also has its defenders,
but yhe program is the only source of news in many small towns.

Alessandra Dalevi

"In Brasília, 7 p.m. On the air, A Voz do Brasil (The Voice of Brazil). Every weeknight at the same time, these words by a male announcer are the signal for millions of Brazilians to turn off their radios. That's when every radio station in Brazil from the smallest to the most powerful, capable of reaching several states, gets into a mandatory national pool. The Voz do Brasil was created in 1931 during the Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship as the main propaganda arm of the all powerful DIP (Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda—Press and Propaganda Department).

Only recently have a handful of stations been able to get through this siege by appealing to the courts. Rio Grande do Sul's Bandeirantes network went to the Justice and won the right for two of its stations (Ipanema FM and Band AM) to present the Voz in a different time than the rest of the country. The radio station's management convinced the judge that the listeners would be better served at that time with music, news and traffic reports. The court's only requirement was that the program would still be broadcast the same day it was released.

While A Voz do Brasil only presents the official angle of the facts and seems to be hated by most people it also has its defenders. The program is the only source of news in many small towns, villages and rural areas without newspapers and TV.

As for Band AM and Ipanema FM they start transmitting the daily program a little before midnight just in time for them to conform to the special license they were awarded. From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. they play popular Brazilian music interspersed with news and traffic flashes. With the market exclusivity for this time slot they have gained many new advertisers.

The Bandeirantes example has inspired several other radio stations across the country to try doing the same and many have asked the Justice for the special exemption. They continue, however, to be the exception. In São Paulo, giant Eldorado (AM and FM), a company belonging to the media powerhouse group O Estado, for years has waged a battle to end the Voz do Brasil's requirement. They led 850 other radios stations in a public relations and court campaign against the government. They contend the law that forces radio stations to broadcast A Voz do Brasil is unconstitutional. "This is an anti-democratic inheritance of the Vargas' era."

Eldorado is now waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the subject. The movement has encountered opposition in Congress. The OAB (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil—Brazil Bar Association) had promised to fight against the law, but went back in its decision after being pressured by house members and senators. In December 1997, the Republic General Prosecutor, Geraldo Brindeiro, seemed ready to take on the case. But he also excused himself from the litigation when Congressmen started to call his office in protest.

Eldorado has posted a document on its Website saying, among other things, "We have no doubt that our action will be victorious and that the disgraceful program will be judged unconstitutional because there is no jurist or professor of constitutional right in this country that will not recognize the unconstitutionality of the obligation to broadcast Voz do Brasil. For all these reasons we can say that Voz do Brasil is finished. It tries to survive, as a castaway, clinging to minor questions, related to the tardy juridical rite. As soon as it get to the Supreme Court we have no doubt it will be found unconstitutional. Then, radio listeners in Brazil will be rid of this monstrosity forever. The world's worst radio program will end."

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