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Brazilian media becomes a star in bribe scandal

Posted on: Sunday, 24 July 2005, 08:04 CDT

By Terry Wade

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's aggressive media is playing a starring role in a worsening bribery scandal, breaking dozens of stories during the last two months and triggering high-profile resignations.

But some people fear Brazil's risk-taking media may lose credibility if it makes mistakes in reporting on corruption charges against the center-left government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The most high impact stories, like one the news magazine Veja published, have had photos of loan documents or bank withdrawals tying the ruling Workers' Party to a businessman accused of bribing lawmakers to support bills that Lula has proposed.

A dozen ministers or ruling party officials have resigned, including Workers' Party president Jose Genoino, who left after the Veja article, and Lula's powerful chief of staff Jose Dirceu.

"The media always has a much more vigilant role with a left-wing government," said Luiz Gonzaga Motta, a professor of media at the University of Brasilia. "In this case, the media was served a dish of corruption by the government and is eating it up."

Since Brazil returned to democratic rule in 1985, the press has assumed an increasingly important role and is credited with helping both elect and then, several years later, helping push out President Fernando Collor for embezzlement in 1992.

During this most recent scandal, some stories have relied mostly on off-the-record sources. Those have rattled financial markets by raising the specter of more bad news to come and helped widen the scope of Congressional inquiries into the alleged scheme. Sometimes these turned out to be wrong.

That has led some, like Alberto Dines, a veteran Brazilian journalist turned media watchdog, to say local media have a split personality -- criticizing competitors for publishing unsourced stories and then ignoring the same advice.

"The media turns on the floodlights but hates it when the floodlights are turned back to shine on it," he said in a column this week on the Ultimo Segundo Web site, detailing a series of what he said were errors in scandal coverage.

A LESSON FOR THE U.S. PRESS?

But reporting errors in Brazil have not generated outcries like the ones in the United States following recent lapses at CBS News, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times. As a result, reporters here may have more leeway when chasing stories. At the same time, a fractious Congress and president's office offer a Pandora's box of leaks.

"A vibrant press (in Brazil), which might pass on a few tips to colleagues in North America, is breaking story after story," International Herald Tribune columnist Roger Cohen wrote this month.

"At a time when ... there's a very disciplined administration here (in the U.S.) and it's been hard to break stories I was just impressed by the way they (Brazilian journalists) were getting some very good material," Cohen said in a telephone interview.

Source: REUTERS

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