TV Bahia x The Quilombo: Globo Journalism’s Finest Hour?

“The Jornal Nacional stated that no sugar-cane mills ever existed in the region, ignoring the fact that one of the areas in question was the site of one of the first Brazilian sugar plantations for European export, with a very significant mill whose ruins can be observed there up to the present today,” said the anthropologist.

Observatório da Imprensa: There are facts — some of them allegedly nonexistent — to be checked in Globo TV’s recent reporting on a matter involving land grants to quilombo communities in the Brazilian state of Bahia.

Globo’s G1 ran a print version of the story that I will translate for you later. The PT-Br video has been posted to YouTube. Subtitling, when I get a chance.

In a report on the port of Paraná last year, Globo reported an amazing number of nonexistent facts about the public terminal there, illustrated with footage of trucks backed up outside said terminal.

The problem is that the terminal it filmed, with the traffic backed up, was, not the public freight terminal, but a private terminal operated by Cargill. See Globo’s Port Report Comes Up Short.

Ecce, Globo.

This case is a bit more involved, but there is allegedly a similar moment of, er, misabeled photography. As in, “this purported photograph of Maine was actually taken in Finland.”

To support a claim that residents of the region are deforesting the Atlantic rain forest there, Globo reportedly shows footage of logs being removed from along a roadside.

The footage was reportedly shot at another location, far from the area in question.

In its response to a request for comment, Globo does not deny this factual allegation, saying only that it was actually “depicting deforestation in [the wider region].” You be the judge.

And compare Banana-Republican Fact-Check: CNN Español and RCTV, in which CNN labeled footage of a demonstration in Mexico with the dateline “Caracas,” in a story on demonstrations in support of the Venezuelan broadcaster.

Note how anchorman William Bonner pumps up the segment in the lead-in by describing it as “jaw-dropping.” My jaw is not dropping yet.

Some background first:

A quilombo (from the Kimbundu word kilombo) is a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by Quilombolas, or Maroons and, sometimes, a minority of marginalised Portuguese, Brazilian aboriginals, and/or other non-black, non-slave Brazilians. Some of these settlements were near Portuguese settlements and active both in defending against capitães do mato commissioned to recapture slaves and in facilitating the escape of even more slaves. … The Brazilian 1988 constitution granted the remaining quilombos the collective ownership of the lands they have occupied since colonial times, thus recognizing their distinct identity at the same level of the Indians.

Note that not all persons defined as quilombolas need be descendants of slaves.

I read about a case recently in which grileiros in this same area broke into a public registrar’s office and set fire to documents supporting a title claim to quilombo lands. Armed capangas destroying family gardens. Shit like that. But who knows? You have to be there, or have reliable reporting from the ground.

A Convenção 169 da Organização Internacional do Trabalho, ratificada pelo Brasil, e o Decreto 4.887/2003 da Presidência da República asseguram que as pessoas remanescentes de quilombos são as responsáveis pela sua auto-definição. Pela legislação em vigor no Brasil, a auto-atribuição dos povos e comunidades tradicionais é parte necessária nos processo de regularização fundiária dos quilombolas.

Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, ratified by Brazil, and Presidential Decree No. 4,887/2003 provide that persons descended from quilombo communities are responisible for their own self-determination. Under Brazilian law, self-attribution [of quilombola status] by traditional peoples and communities is a necessary part of regularizing title to quilombo lands.

Com base nesta premissa, uma equipe da TV Bahia, afiliada da Rede Globo no estado, esteve em São Francisco do Paraguaçu, uma das onze comunidades do Recôncavo Baiano reconhecidas como remanescentes de quilombos, cujo processo de titulação das terras está em fase final. Nas últimas segunda e terça (14 e 15), veiculou no Jornal Nacional o resultado de sua visita em duas reportagens, intituladas “Suspeitas de fraude em área que vai ser reconhecida como quilombola” e “Incra promete apurar denúncias de fraude no Recôncavo Baiano”.

Based on this premise, a team from TV Bahia, a Globo Network in the state, was in São Francisco do Paraguaçu, one of the eleven communities in the Bahian bay region recognized as remnants of quilobombo settlements, and whose formalization of title is in its final phase. On May 14 and May 15, the Jornal Nacional aired the results of their reporting, titled “Suspected fraud in area that will be recognized as a quilombo settlement” and “Incra promises to investigate fraud charges in the Bahian bay area.”

The director of Globo subsidiary TV Bahia is the wife of Antônio Carlos Magalhães, and its principal shareholders are his children and their spouses. See also “Here’s How It Works”: Political Ownership of the Media in Brazil.

Nas matérias, a emissora apresenta supostos indícios de uma fraude que estaria levando ao reconhecimento das terras. Conversa com moradores que nunca teriam ouvido falar da existência de um quilombo na região; afirma que não existem resquícios de engenhos de cana-de-açúcar no local, onde os escravos teriam trabalhado; e apresenta um documento de pedido de reconhecimento das terras com assinaturas de pessoas que teriam se auto-definido descendentes. Algumas delas, no entanto, teriam sido colhidas para outra finalidade. Na reportagem, o líder comunitário Anselmo Ferreira, que coordenou o projeto que pediu o reconhecimento, afirma que não sabe quem fez a montagem no documento.

In these reports, the broadcaster presents alleged indications of a fraud in the process of recognizing the claim. It talks to residents who say they have never heard of the existence of a quilombo in the region; it says that no traces of sugar-cane mills, where slaves worked, exist in the region; and it presents a petition for recognition of title bearing the signatures of persons who define themselves as descendants. Some of the signatures, however, were allegedly collected for another purpose. In the report, community leader Anselmo Ferreiro, who led the project that petitioned for recognition, says he does not know who prepared the document.

Apesar da declaração de José Vieira Leal, superintendente do Incra (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária) na Bahia, de que há cerca de 100% de indicação de que a área é realmente um território quilombola, a reportagem mantém a denúncia.

Despite a statement by José Vieira Leal, superintendent of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) in Bahia, that there is nearly 100% certain that the area is a genuine quilombo territory, the Jornal Nacional insisted on maintaining the accusation.

Indignada, a comunidade de São Francisco do Paraguaçu, localizada no município de Cachoeira, divulgou uma nota pública contestando as informações veiculadas pela Rede Globo, em que afirma que a emissora produziu uma reportagem “fraudulenta e tendenciosa, sem oferecer a comunidade nenhuma oportunidade para se defender”.

Indignant, the community, which is part of the township of Cachoeira, issued a note contesting the information aired by Globo, saying that the broadcaster produced a report that was “fraudulent and slanted, without offering the community any chance to defend itself.”

“Fomos testemunhas do teatro que foi armado por ocasião das filmagens, onde boa parte da comunidade envolvida na luta pela regularização do território quilombola nem sequer foi ouvida, visto que a equipe de reportagem se recusou a registrar qualquer versão contrária aos interesses dos fazendeiros”, diz a nota, que também informa que os moradores tentaram conversar com a equipe da TV Bahia, sem sucesso.

“We were witnesses to the theater put one when the filming was done, in which a good part of the community involved in the effort to regularize title to the quilombola territory was not even interviewed, in view of the fact that the reporting team refused to record any version that contradicted the interests of the landowners in the area,” said the note, which also reports that residents tried to converse with the TV Bahia team, without success.

Concessionária de serviço público

Public service concessionaire

De acordo com a antropóloga Camila Dutervil, que trabalha com a comunidade, a região do Recôncavo Baiano foi ocupada por escravos que trabalharam nos canaviais que começaram a ser plantados no século XVI e na construção do Convento de Santo Antônio, concluído no final do século XVII, em cujo interior está enterrada uma família de portugueses, senhores das usinas de cana Cotinga e do Engenho da Peninha. A área onde foi construído o convento corresponde a duas sesmarias de terra e foi doada aos padres franciscanos pela família proprietária do engenho. Durante a construção do convento, muitos negros que teriam fugido do trabalho árduo e se refugiado na mata iniciaram o processo de formação do quilombo.

According to anthropologist Camila Dutervil, who works with the community, the Bay region was occupied by slaves who worked in the cane fields that began to be planted in the XVIth century, and on the Convent of Santo Antônio, concluded in the late XVIIth century, inside of which a Portuguese family, owners of the Cotinga and Engenho da Peninha sugar factories, are buried. The area where the convent was built corresponds to two [big units] of land and was donated to the Franciscans by the family that owned the mill. During the construction of the convent, a number of blacks, fleeing from the arduous labor and hiding in the jungle, began the process of forming the quilombo.

“O Jornal Nacional afirmou que engenhos de açúcar nunca existiram na região, ignorando o fato de que uma das áreas pleiteadas trata-se de uma das primeiras fazendas de exportação de açúcar para a Europa, onde existiu um engenho muito importante, cujas ruínas podem ser observadas até hoje”, afirma Carla.

“The Jornal Nacional stated that no sugar-cane mills ever existed in the region, ignoring the fact that one of the areas in question was one of the first sugar plantations for European export, with a very significant mill whose ruins can be observed even today,” said the anthropologist.

Atualmente, cerca de 300 famílias vivem da agricultura de subsistência, da pesca, da coleta de marisco e do extrativismo da piaçava no local. A atividade produtiva é baseada no trabalho familiar, na cooperação entre diferentes grupos domésticos e no uso comum dos recursos naturais. “Historicamente, nossa comunidade ocupa este território. Os relatos dos mais idosos remetem nossa presença a muitas gerações. Ali sempre praticamos um modo de vida fruto de uma longa tradição deixada por nossos ancestrais”, afirmam os moradores na nota.

Currently, nearly 300 families live on subsistence agriculture, fishing, harvesting shellfish and extracting palm fruit in the area. Productive activity is based on family work, cooperation among households and common use of natural resources. “Historically, our community occupies this territory. Reports from the older people prove our presence here for generations. Here we always practice a way of life that is the fruit of a long tradition left by our ancestors,” says the residents in their note.

In the interior of Bahia, I read, they recently discovered self-identified Christian families who practiced the Passover seder, in secret, without having any idea what it meant.

They are apparently descendants of cristão novo families, forcibly converted by the Inquisition but practicing Jewish traditions in secret. But have forgotten the fact. All that remains is the ritual. Some story.

A Coordenação Nacional das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas (Conaq), entidade representativa dos quilombolas de todos os estados, reafirma a existência da comunidade e de pessoas assumidas como remanescentes de quilombos no local.

The National Coordinator of Rural Black Quilombo Communities (Conaq), an organization that represents quilombolas in all Brazilian states, confirms the existence of the commuity and of persons identified as descendents of quilombolas in the location.

“Quando a Globo coloca no ar alguém dizendo que não é descendente de escravo não significa que essa pessoa não é quilombola. O termo não é, necessariamente, utilizado por todos. As pessoas se assumem como comunidade negra, como terras de preto. Mas as nomeclaturas significam a mesma coisa”, explica Givânia Maria da Silva, da Conaq.

“When Globo airs a report saying that a person is not a descendant of a slave, that does not mean they are not a quilombola. The term is not necessarily used by everyone. Persons identify themselves as black community, as living on black land. But the terminology means the same thing,” explains Givânia Maria da Silva, of Conaq.

“Não cabe à Globo apurar se as pessoas se chamam de negro, de mulato, de descendente de quilombo. Como uma concessionária de um serviço público, ela precisa respeitar os processos de cada grupo. Por que não entrevistou pessoas reunidas em grupo, onde fosse possível discutir essa questão? A reportagem também faz alusão a assinaturas recolhidas com outro objetivo no documento e entrevista o líder comunitário sobre isso. Ele mesmo diz que não reconhece algumas assinaturas, então cabe à emissora mostrar a veracidade deste documento que está publicizando e como o conseguiu”, completa.

“It is not up to Globo to determine whether persons refer to themselves as black, mulatto, or quilombo descendants. As a concessionaire of a public service, it needs to respect the process of each group. Why did it not interview persons meeting together as a group, where it would have been able to debate the question? The report also alludes to signatures collected for another purpose than they were used for, and interviews the community leader about this. He himself says he does not recognize some of the signatures. It is therefore up to the broadcaster to show that the document is authentic and say how it got it,” she concludes.

O Centro de Cultura Luiz Freire, que trabalha com comunidades quilombolas na região nordeste, também criticou a reportagem do Jornal Nacional por, em nenhum momento, abrir espaço para as pessoas que se reconhecem quilombolas naquela comunidade afirmarem as razões pelas quais reivindicam o reconhecimento oficial de sua condição étnica.

The Luiz Freire, which works with quilombola communities in the Northeast, also criticized the Jornal Nacional report for failing to offer space to persons who identify themselves as quilombolas in that community so that they could explain the reaons they claim official recognition of their ethnic identity.

Desmatamento

Deforestation

No final da reportagem veiculada no dia 14 de maio, o jornalista da Rede Globo acusa os moradores de São Francisco do Paraguaçu de estarem desmatando a floresta na região. “Como se pode notar, os descendentes de quilombolas, futuros proprietários da área, estão interessados mesmo é na madeira da mata atlântica”, afirma o repórter, ao mostrar cenas de toras sendo transportadas na estrada.

At the end of the report aired on May 14, the Globo journalist accuses the residents of São Francisco do Paraguaçu of deforesting the region. “As can be observed, what the descendents of quilombolas, the future owners of the area, are really interested in is the hardwood of the Atlantic rainforest,” the reporter states, showing scenes of logs being transported along the road.

Os moradores, no entanto, afirmam que a área que a Rede Globo filmou não faz parte do terrritório de São Francisco do Paraguaçu. O desmatamento em questão estaria localizado na beira da estrada, antes do povoado de Santiago do Iguape, distante do início da área pleiteada pela comunidade.

But the residents say the area the Globo report filmed is not part of the territory of São Francisco do Paraguaçu. The deforestation in question is located along the road leading to the village of Santiago do Iguape, far from the area being claimed by the community.

“Extraímos da floresta a piaçava, o dendê, a castanha, e tantos outros produtos. Extraímos tantos tipos de cipós diferentes que usamos para fazer cofos, cestos e tantos outros artesanatos aprendidos com nossos avós. Nós amamos a floresta e a defendemos”, afirmam os moradores.

“We extract Brazil nuts, oil-bearing red palm fruit and the fruit of the piaçaba (Leopoldinia piassaba) palm, and things like that. We extract various types of vine that we used to make fishing baskets, storage baskets and other handicrafts we learned from out grandparents. We love the forest and defend it,” say the residents.

De acordo com a atropóloga Carla Dutervil, a comunidade depende diretamente dos recursos naturais para a sua sobrevivência historicamente desenvolveu formas próprias de relações com o ambiente, que viabilizaram uma convivência harmônica com o ecossistema. “Os reais impactos ambientais já comprovados no território de São Francisco do Paraguaçu, foram obras de fazendeiros da região, que aterraram mangues, provocaram erosão com a construção de estradas e derrubaram a floresta para criação de gado”, afirma. “Com tom disfarçado de ambientalista, o real objetivo da reportagem foi defender a manutenção dos interesses da aristocracia agrária do Recôncavo Baiano. De fato, o que está ameaçada é a liberdade de uma comunidade que viveu secularmente na sombra do patrão, se acostumou a servir e está presa por relações de exploração clientelista”, completa.

According to the anthropologist Carla Dutervil, the community depends directly on natural resources for their survival and historically have develope their own forms of relationship with the environment which makes possible a harmonious coexistence with the ecosystem. “The real environmental impacts in the region of São Francisco, as has been documented, were projects by landowners of the area, who uproot mango trees, cause erosion with road construction, and cut down rainforest to create cattle pasture,” she states. “Disguised in an environmentalist tone, the report has as its real objective to defend the interests of the rural aristocracy of the region. In fact, what is threatened here is the liberty of a community that has lived for centuries in the shadow of the boss, are habituated to servility and are captives of clientelist exploitation,” she concludes.

Há cerca de um ano a imprensa vem noticiando conflitos entre quilombolas e fazendeiros na região. Em setembro passado, grupos armados atacaram as famílias de São Francisco do Paraguaçu, destruindo suas lavouras. Em novembro, o Incra promoveu uma audiência pública, convocada pela Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (Seppir) da Presidência da República, para buscar soluções para os conflitos entre os quilombolas e os fazendeiros. Como informou a Agência Brasil, com a inserção do programa Brasil Quilombola na localidade, os proprietários de imóveis rurais ampliaram as cercas de suas propriedades, dificultando as atividades das famílias que seriam beneficiadas com o fim do processo de regularização fundiária do território.

The press has been reporting for nearly a year on conflicts between the quilombolas and planters in the region. Last September, armed groups attacked families in São Francisco do Paraguaçu, destroying their gardens. In November, Incra held a public hearing convened by the President’s Special Secretary for Policies Promoting Racial Equality (SEPPIR), in search of solutions for these conflicts. As Agência Brasil reported, with the arrival the federal Brasil Quilombola program in the area, the owners of rural real property have extended their fences, presenting obstacles to the activities of families who would benefit from the formalization of title to their territory.

“Entendemos o que está acontecendo como uma ameaça à grande virada no país: o reconhecimento pelo Estado do dano causado historicamente por ele próprio à população negra que ajudou a construir este país. O que o latifúndio quer é que este avanço conquistado seja recuado. Uma postura como esta fere a democracia”, conclui Givânia, da Conaq.

“We understand what is happening as a threat to a great turning point in our history: The recognition by the State of the great historical harm it has caused to the black population that helped to build this country. What the latifundio wants is to roll back this conquestion. An attitude like this is detrimental to democracy,” says Givânia, of Conaq.

A resposta da Globo

Globo’s reponse

A pedido da Carta Maior, a equipe do Jornal Nacional enviou a seguinte resposta à redação:

At the request of the Carta Maior news agency, the Jornal Nacional sent the following response:

“A equipe formada por três profissionais experientes da TV Bahia passou três dias na região de São Francisco do Paraguaçu. Ouviu aposentados, pescadores, moradores antigos do vilarejo – e também o coordenador do movimento, que pede que a área seja reconhecida como remanescente de quilombo, Anselmo Ferreira. Em entrevista, Anselmo não soube explicar a origem das assinaturas do abaixo-assinado que foi entregue à Fundação Palmares. A grande maioria da população local não concorda com o projeto. Ficou claro que os moradores desconhecem a atividade artesanal do tempo dos escravos, as danças herdadas da África. Desconhecem também o nome que eles teriam criado para a área: Quilombo Freguesia do Iguape. A equipe mostrou, com imagens, que os últimos fragmentos de Mata Atlântica no Recôncavo Baiano já começaram a ser destruídos, antes mesmo do reconhecimento oficial como área que teria pertencido a escravos refugiados. Um crime ecológico que demonstra interesses comerciais na proposta do movimento”.

“The team of three experienced professional from TV Bahia spent three days in the area of São Francisco do Paraguaçu. It interviewed retired persons, long-time residents of the village — and also the coordinator of the movement, who is asking for recognition of the area as a remnant of a quilombo settlement, Anselmo Ferreira. In an interview, Anselmo could not explain the origin of the signatures of the petition that was turned in to the Palmares Foundation. The great majority of the local population do not agree with the project. It was clear that the residents do not know the handicrafts of slavery times or the dances inherited from Africa. They also do not know the name they allegedly created for the area: the Quilombo Freguesia do Iguape. The team showed, through images, that the last remnants of Atlantic rainforest are beginning to be destroyed in the Bay region, even before the official recognition of the area as having belonged to fugitive slaves. An ecological crime that demonstrates commercial interests in the movement’s proposal.”

Quite a saga, that, but in the meantime, there are several technical journalistic questions that Globo does not address here:

1. Did Globo represent footage of another location entirely as the location in question?
2. Did Globo properly source the document it presented on the air? Or did it do a Dan Rather?
3. Did it refuse to afford equal time to persons directly involved in the matter?
4. Did it err in reporting that the area has none of the relevant historical and archaeological characteristics of a quilombo?
5. Did it conduct a formal survey of local residents on the matter, given that it represents that “the vast majority do not agree with the project.”
6. Can Globo show concrete evidence that the “ecological crime” it denounces was committed by the persons it attributes it to?
7. Can Globo refute the claim — it is allegedly documented by an environmental impact study — that the local fazendeiros, not the quilombolas, are causing deforestation? Did it try?
8. The representative of the community says the document he is confronted with is a “montage.” Can Globo prove it is the authentic document, in the exact form submitted?

Let’s just start with No. 1. When I get a chance.

Rede Globo: You have to see it to (not) believe it.