01/06/2008

Diplomat, not a soldier

CARLOS EDUARDO LINS DA SILVA
ombudsman@uol.com.br

The ombudsman is someone who seeks mutually satisfactory solutions for all parties to a disagreement; he is an agent of conciliation, not litigation

The annual conference of the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO), which groups about 100 people who perform the job in news organizations around the world, ended yesterday in Stockholm.

The Swedish capital is the location most appropriate for this meeting because it was in this nation that the word was born and the position was created in 1713, as Par-Arne Jigenius, ombudsman at the Swedish daily "Dagens Nyheter," explained.

Charles XII was the king of Sweden, one of the biggest powers of the era, with a territory that included present-day Latvia, Finland, Estonia, part of Germany's Baltic coast and part of Russia. He became famous for the wars he waged against Denmark and Russia, initially successful but ended with a reversal so costly to his country that it never returned to the geopolitical importance it had in that era.

When he was exiled in Turkey, influenced by similar experiences he observed there, Charles XII created the Office of Supreme Ombudsman. The word comes from Swedish umbuds man, which means representative.

From the start, despite the authoritativeness of the title, the ombudsman had only the authority to receive complaints from the public, investigate them and send them to the government departments with the authority to resolve each topic.

Charles XII was a great warrior. But when he decided to establish the ombudsman he was thinking like a politician about how to reconcile in a peaceful way conflicts of interest between citizens of the state.

With the passage of years, the position inspired similar attempts in governments, companies and finally, starting in 1967 (in the "Courier-Journal" and "The Louisville Times" in Louisville, Kentucky), in newspapers and afterward in other news organizations.

The ombudsman is someone who seeks mutually satisfactory solutions for parties in disagreement. He is an agent of conciliation, not litigation; he promotes harmony, not dissent. The model is that of a diplomat, not soldier.

Sometimes, in societies that find themselves in great ideological agitation, some could idealize the ombudsman as someone in charge of attacking and punishing, even if only for public humiliation of someone considered an enemy.

That is not what he should do. That was not the reason that the institution was conceived, not in the sphere of the state nor the sphere of the media.

The exchange of ideas in Stockholm among professionals from countries as diverse as Brazil, Turkey, the United States, Colombia, United Kingdom, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, South Africa, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden shows that despite the cultural, economic, political and social differences, the media ombudsman's mission is clear.

It has basically three dimensions, all of them fundamental. One is to mediate eventual misunderstandings between consumers and producers of information. The second, stimulate technical improvement of news organizations in which they work. The third, help expand public consciousness about the role of news media in society and refine the relationship between them.

In another happy coincidence at the 2008 ONO meeting, the presidency of the organization is occupied by a journalist from Kentucky, the southern U.S. state where the first press ombudsman worked.

She is Pam Platt of the "Courier-Journal." In a good-humored speech to open the conference, she compared what ombudsmen do with her recent adventure paddling a kayak alone in Florida in a river full of alligators. To come out well in both situations, she recommends two priorities: never stop rowing and know the road well. Wise counsel.

Donations to parties

In my opinion and that of 14 readers who complained about the topic to the ombudsman, the story that Folha published on Monday about donations to political parties was mistaken.

It showed, in an accusatory tone, that the big companies which made donations to the governing Workers Party (PT) in 2007 provided services to the federal government in the second term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva worth a multiple 54 times larger than their donations.

The donations were legal and are public. By questioning them, the newspaper could give the impression of not approving of this type of operation foreseen in legislation. It most certainly would not prefer that it be done with slush funds in a clandestine way.

It is natural for big companies that they come to receive large contracts from the federal government. If the tenders won through competitive bidding don't show any irregularities, there is nothing to get excited about.

In every country in which donations to political parties are allowed by law, it is common for big companies to make associations as a way to achieve power. In Brazil, that is no exception.

It turns out that in a separate and smaller story, which was not mentioned on the front page, the newspaper reported that at least some of the same companies also donated to the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) and provided services to the state governments in São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

The strangest thing is that those who are willing to look through the accounts discover that the relationship between the donor and recipient in the case of the PSDB is much greater than in the case of the PT. But the attention on the front page as well as inside the newspaper focused on donations to the PT.

To read

"Ombudsman - Pascal's Clock," by Caio Túlio Costa (São Paulo: Generation Publishers, 2006) --tells about the experiences of the first ombudsman at Folha (starting at 29.25 reals, or about US $18.25)

To see

"Queen Christina," by Robert Mamoulian, with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert (1933) --film about Sweden two generations before the creation of the post of ombudsman shows the importance of diplomacy in the resolution of conflicts (available on DVD in the Greta Garbo collection, Volume 1, which also includes the films "Mata Hari" and "Grand Hotel," starting at 69.90 reals)

Topics most commented during the week

1. Campaign donations
2. Isabella story
3. Sports coverage

What the newspaper did right

Internet

Book by Mark Bauerlein about the Internet deserves the attention it got in the arts and entertainment section on Wednesday and will generate controversy

Ruanda

Story on Sunday helps to keep alive the memory of one of the biggest genocides in contemporary history

And where it was wrong

Alstom

The case that involves Petrobras appears in the newspaper, but topics involving the São Paulo state government stay out

Base School

Newspaper fails to report the guilty verdict against the Folha Group by the São Paulo Court of Justice, still subject to appeal in a higher court.

-Translation by John Wright