The Difficulties in Providing Good Information

09/20/2016 - 15h00

The presentation of the Lava Jato (Car Wash) Operation task force formalizing the accusations of the Federal Prosecutors against former President Lula, his wife Marisa and five employees of construction company OAS has given rise to criticisms from the most varied segments of society and highlighted problems that the press is facing.

The spectacularization has perplexed a considerable portion of the legal community, way beyond the complaints expected from defense lawyers involved in what has been referred to as "petrolão" (Petrobras corruption scandal).

Last Wednesday (the 14th), Federal Prosecutors and Federal Police Agents slipped up in their exposition about Lula, unlike their normally efficient presentations that have become common under the scope of the Lava Jato operation.

The accusations of the Federal Prosecutors related to Lula can be analyzed from two different angles. From the first, which is technical, the prosecutors accuse Lula of receiving improper favors from companies benefiting from corruption in his government. This is a question to be resolved by the courts.

From the second, there is rambling commotion, in which the prosecutors engage in declaratory flourishes, going way beyond the scope of what the investigation they are conducting permits. If they say that Lula is the head of a criminal organization, but don't charge him as such, it appears that the prosecutors are playing to the audience.

They are theatricalizing the accusations, as if readers and spectators were members of a huge jury trial and needed to have their hearts won over before their minds.

In an action to turn the spotlight back on the prosecutors, Lula also responded in a theatrical and emotional matter, reinforcing the appearance that marketing is winning out over journalism in the Lava Jato coverage.

A healthy body in Brazilian democracy, the Federal Prosecutor's Office, whose independence was strengthened by the 1988 Constitution, has its own interests in the processes that it is involved in, just as the defense lawyers have in the ones of those who are being accused.

Articles in Folha this week reporting on one side or the other committed the sin of simply repeating what the prosecutors or the former president said. There was no critical analysis of the accusations made by the Federal Prosecutors nor of the counter arguments made by the former president.

This journalistic error was in evidence clearly in the headline of page A4 of Thursday's (15) edition: "Car Wash denounces Lula accusing him of being the head of [the so-called] petrolão [corruption scheme]".

That's incorrect. The PT leader was denounced under the accusation of active- and passive- corruption and of money laundering. Folha passively accepted the words and discourse of the prosecutors.

Especially these days where time and space is disputed, news reporting needs to be ever more critical and analytical in order not to not fall into journalistic naivety. Politics editor Fábio Zanini disagrees.

"Questioning and relativizing accusations is crucial, but we need to be careful not to editorialize reporting", he says. "The volume of information to be digested in a short time is immense and many aspects require technical knowledge. No matter how much experience reporters have with the subject, the difficulty is obvious", he declares.

On Monday the 12th, prosecutors alerted that on Wednesday (14th) at 3 p.m., a major charge would be announced, without providing more detail. At 2:30 p.m., the names of the accused were released without providing any more details. And finally at 3:26 p.m., the petition was filed in court. The press conference started at around 4 p.m.

The formal accusation was 149 pages long with 305 annexes containing documents. It was impossible for any journalist to prepare himself in advance in a minimally reasonable fashion for the presentation by the prosecutors.

A suspenseful plot that the Federal Prosecutors could have avoided in favor of a well-informed society.

Folha had two reporters on location in Curitiba to accompany the press conference and study the details of the accusation, pressed by time and by competition from real time news sources.

In Friday's (16th) edition, a report on Lula's long speech didn't emphasize emphatically that in more than one hour he didn't respond objectively to the accusations against him, and that he still hasn't explained his role in the business of the purchase of the apartment in Guaraujá and in the remodeling of the county house in Atibaia.

Investigation of this last point shows a rare example of the press following its own line of reasoning – when Folha revealed that employees from construction companies carried out the remodeling of the country house. Lula also still hasn't justified the payment of R$ 1,3 million (US$ 400,000) from the Lula Institute to the company owned by his son, Fábio Luís.

It is not the mission of the Ombudsman to crush accusations made by the Federal Prosecutors or the defenses presented by those accused. What interests me is ensuring that the reader has the most qualified information, analyzed with balance, non-partisanship, loyalty and critical rigor.

These are crucial demands, especially in controversial cases like Car Wash.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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