Bolsonaro Casts Doubt on TV Globo’s Concession Renewal

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro, when leaving the Alvorada Palace on Thursday morning, April 30th, again threatened not to renew TV Globo’s concession in 2022. The President criticized the country’s and Latin America’s largest broadcaster, which he regards as an adversary.

The President complained about the way the network reported his speech on Tuesday, April 28th, when, challenged by the record of 479 deaths from the novel coronavirus reported that day, he replied: “So what? I’m sorry. What do you want me to do? I’m Messias (Messiah – the President’s middle name), but I don’t work miracles”.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro stated that there had been “misrepresentation on the part of Globo” and referred to the television network as “garbage”.

“This garbage press called Globo. Or rather, garbage can be recycled. Globo is not garbage, it can’t be recycled. The ‘and then’ came in and then they insisted on asking me stupid questions. This garbage press, crap.”

Then Bolsonaro threatened not to authorize the concession renewal in 2022.

“I’m not giving you any money. Globo, there’s no money for you. In 2022… It’s not a threat. As I do with everyone, you’ll need to have to keep your accounts in order for you [Globo] to have your concession renewed. If you don’t have everything in order, I will not renew your concession or anyone else’s,” the President said.

The radio and TV stations in Brazil are public concessions. TV Globo’s expires in April 2023. The concession is renewed or cancelled by the President, and Congress can vote on or overturn the presidential act in a roll-call vote of 2/5 of the Houses (Article 223 of the Constitution).

According to a law passed by the Michel Temer administration, however, the President can decide on the concession up to one year before it expires – that is, in Globo’s case, in April 2022, the start of the last year of Bolsonaro’s term.

In late October last year, after the ‘Jornal Nacional’ (Evening News) broadcast a story mentioning Bolsonaro’s name in connection with the investigation into the murder of Rio city councillor Marielle Franco, the President accused the station of wanting to make his life a living hell.

“You will renew the concession in 2022. I will not chase you, but the proceedings will be clean. If the proceedings are not clean, legal, there will be no renewal of your concession, and of any TV. You were betting on taking me down in the first year and you didn’t succeed,” he said at the time.

According to the ‘Jornal Nacional’ at the time, the statement of a condominium gatekeeper where Bolsonaro owns a house in Barra da Tijuca, suggested that one of the people charged with the murder had arrived at the site and said that he would be going to the home of the then federal deputy. That would have happened hours before Marielle’s death.

The Prosecutor’s Office, however, then said that the gatekeeper’s statement did not match the expert evidence obtained and that he may have lied. In addition, on the day of Marielle’s death, Bolsonaro was in Brasília. Days later, the gatekeeper told the Federal Police he had made a mistake when mentioning the President.

In addition to the threats regarding the network’s public concession, the Bolsonaro government changed the logic of distributing advertising funds to free television networks, by allocating the largest percentage of resources to the Record and SBT networks, which are close allies of the President but not audience leaders.

According to a report by the TCU (Federal Audit Court), although it is the most watched network in the country, Globo began to have a much smaller share of the cake than its two competitors, which had not been the case in the past.

In the morning interview on Thursday, Bolsonaro refused to answer any questions other than those asked by CNN Brasil. Reporters from Folha, O Globo, O Estado de S. Paulo and G1 website were on the premises and asked questions, but the President declined to answer and referred to one of the journalists present as “fake news”.