Brazil: Has a free Internet really appeared on the electoral scene? · Global Voices
Roger Franchini

After much deliberation, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies [pt] and National Senate [pt] have this month approved a bill that reforms the laws number 9.096/95 (Electoral Law, pt) and 9.504/1997 (Standards for Elections, pt), imposing new rules for the 2010 election  campaign, the largest in the country, in which the president, state  governors as well as state and federal members of parliament will be chosen.
With  the reform, the restrictions that used to ban all campaign advertising on the Internet have changed – and a few perplexing caveats, especially when it comes to blogging, have been put in place: now, personal websites and media outlets shall be treated equally, follow the same rules of conduct and be liable to the same punishments, already applied to the mainstream media. For it to come into force by next year's  presidential and state elections, President Lula must sign the bill into law by October 2, exactly one year before the polls.
Political parties will campaign for their candidates  from July 5 through October 3, 2010, the election date. The law will be  enforced during this period, regulating the political  propaganda as well as voters’ participation on the Internet. The  National Chamber of Deputies, who call themselves “the People's House”, released  the news through their official news website [pt], stating in bold headlines that the “Chamber allows the Internet in election  campaigns,” as if the use of the web was a gift given to citizens by  members of parliament. So did the Senate.
The joint report [pt] by two of the Chamber's Commissions (Justice and Citizenship and  Science, Technology and Innovation) upheld the point of view of the  bill's author, Deputy Henrique Eduardo Alves [pt], and saw no objection to making independent Internet users’ expression equal with political propaganda on radio, TV and print media.
Unfortunately, the national parliament has missed an excellent  opportunity to display support for Brazilian society, choosing instead  to respond to political interests only to the detriment of the broader  freedom of expression. Regarding this point, Raphael Tsavkko on the Trezentos blog [pt] criticizes the lack of sense of the Brazilian Parliament in bringing  the electoral reform close to the laws imposed on people by the  military dictatorship 70 years ago. He highlights [pt] the contradiction that while bloggers can not  speak their minds anonymously, campaign donors  have kept the right not to reveal their identities:
Eles brigam, nós, o povo, perdemos.
A tentativa de colar a idéia desta censura à uma suposta  moralização é inútil, soa ofensiva quando os políticos corruptos e com  ficha suja continuarão a concorrer em total liberdade. Existe liberdade  para a bandalha, para o roubo, mas não para a livre expressão! Nós,  palhaços, ops, eleitores, para piorar, sequer podemos sabem quem  financia nossos candidatos! A piada da doação oculta permanece. OS  parlamentares tem medo de dizer a verdade, de mostrar de onde vem o  dinheiro de suas campanhas e pra quem irão, efetivamente legislar. Para  nós é que não é, disto já sabemos!
The same blog suggests that readers send mass e-mails to the members of  parliament responsible for the reform, stating dissatisfaction with this  rights restricting law, and lists the relevant e-mail addresses.
On the other hand, the news pieces about the project's approval last  week proved that society no longer remembers the censorship imposed by Law  9504/1997, a legal text that had already put the Internet and mainstream  media in the same bag. To refresh your memory, this symbol of negative  individual rights of the Brazilian people prohibits “disseminating  opinion for or against a candidate, party, coalition, or their  representative organizations” online (Article 45, item III), under penalty of a fine of up to R$ 100,000.00 (approximately  US$ 50,000).
The  current project does not differentiate personal blogs  and web pages from those belonging to mainstream media, and includes  other restrictions, such as those regarding debate and interviews with candidates. Should  a netcitizen “commit this crime”, they may suffer criminal penalties and be subject to fines  ranging between R$5,000.00 and R$30,000.00 (approximately US$ 2,500  to 15,000). According to the Members of Parliaments’ interpretation, anyone who talks about a candidate is dangerous and should be tightly  controlled. Moreover, if a blogger criticizes a candidate, they  must give the  right of reply according to fairness rules, which has made many Internet users wonder, like Rogério Martins, from the Marginal Conservador [pt] blog:
A Câmara manteve a liberdade de blogs, redes sociais, sites e programas de mensagens instantâneas (até o msn neguinho  quer vigiar!), mas com ressalvas. Ressalvas um tanto inusitadas: o  direito democrático de cada blogueiro em expressar sua opinião por um  ou outro candidato está liberado, mas caberá o direito de resposta e a  proibição do anonimato em artigos e reportagens. […] Direito de  resposta para blogs?!?! Ora, os blogs estão entre os meios mais  democráticos da internet, pois o “direito de resposta” já é algo  inerente a eles, na ideia dos comentários que qualquer leitor pode  fazer após a leitura das postagens. É isso que torna a internet 2.0  única. Aqui, o leitor também tem vez: cada post tem espaço para  comentários, elogios, críticas, “direitos de resposta” etc. E há também  a flexibilidade: podemos sempre “corrigir” textos já escritos,  acrecentando algo ou cortando eventuais tropeços.
The MP's fear of losing control over the free expression of all citizens is shown in item I of Article 57-D of the bill, which prohibits news pieces dealing with electoral research regarding the campaign and candidates, including:
Art. 57-D – It is forbidden for content providers and multimedia services, as well as media companies on the Internet, in their content available on the web pages:
I – To transmit, albeit in the form of journalistic interviews, images, text or sound about electoral research conducted, or any other kind of popular consultation about the elections where it is possible to identify the [candidate] interviewed or where there is data manipulation.
In other words, besides forbidding  comments about any candidate, no online vehicle, including blogs, will be able to mention electoral research results, even if in a critical or journalistic instance. An online article that a netcitizen eventually writes can not bear the names of candidates, parties, coalitions, images, videos or other means to identify them. According to Arturios Maximus, from the Visão Panorâmica [pt] blog, the behavior of the members of parliament reveals a fear of having their personal lives exposed  [pt] by the work of individual netcitizens:
A fantasia de honradez de hombridade e de  progressividade longamente cultivada diante das lentes da televisão e  dos gravadores de jornalistas subservientes e tolhidos por empresas  dependentes de publicidade e de financiamentos públicos; de repente se  torna a carantonha feia e asquerosa, corroída pela corrupção e por toda  sorte de vícios e ilicitudes cometidos ao longo de décadas de  dissimulação estudada, tolerada e incentivada. Do dia para a noite o  “nobre senador” ou o “nobre deputado” vê sua verdadeira imagem de  escroque oportunista exposta aos quatro ventos para quem quiser ver;  bem ali, ao alcance de um simples clique do mouse.
Member of Parliament  Flávio Dino, who co-authored the controversial bill, gives a lesson in empty rhetoric, acknowledging that the Internet, radio and TV are all the same but at the same time denying that he had acknowledged so in an interview for the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo [pt]:
“A internet não é igual a rádio e televisão, mas é também rádio, é também televisão.  É também equivalente a jornal e a revista. Então, o regime jurídico tem  que ser também misto, tem que ser também híbrido. A equiparação  absoluta que nós fizemos foi apenas em relação aos debates. Ou seja, se  é feito um debate em um portal comercial e em uma rede comercial de TV  há que se observar as mesmas regras que são democráticas. São as regras  de garantir voz para todos”.
Marcelo Träsel, in his homonyms blog [pt], analyses the problems of comparing media traditionally linked to the market with Internet individuals, noting that the private nature of the Internet does not allow it to be treated in the same way as mainstream television channels, radio and press:
O maior problema é a comparação da Internet com rádio  e televisão, completamente falaciosa. As regras para propaganda e  jornalismo em rádio e televisão são mais restritivas por se tratarem de  concessões públicas. A Internet não exige uma concessão para que  qualquer pessoa ou instituição possa se manifestar, portanto não pode  seguir as mesmas regras de rádio e televisão. Nas redes de  computadores, os candidatos podem ocupar espaços livremente, sem  depender da chancela de um jornalista ou empresário de comunicação.  Assim, as possibilidades de manipulação por parte do poder econômico  são muito menores — embora existam.
The disservice done by this piece of legislature to the press and Web 2.0 reaches unimaginable proportions for a 21st century that is free from  dictatorial moorings. The lone netcitizen has been legally obliged to behave as a media entrepreneur, unable to analyse the posture of candidates and the conduct of the elections in his country, and has had his  constitutionally guaranteed right of expression restricted. Another shovel full of earth on the fragile democratic state.