died in anti-government protests since april well those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after listening post statement thanks for watching. a clan the stein wilt of illegal trade what you have here is not just park a logical object you're talking about a political dimension where the spoils of war are smuggled and sold to auction houses and private collectors the banker selling an artifact is what finance is the beheadings of muslims in the middle east don't sell don't that's one quick solution . trafficking at this time on al-jazeera. i think you. know like hello i think it's like oh my. oh my god yes they are. not all right but. hello i'm richard gere's virt and you're watching

a special edition of the listening post coming to you from rio de janeiro brazil is more than two years into a series of political crises that have already led to the downfall of one government that of former president dilma rousseff and may well topple another led by current president michelle tanner where in rio rather than the capital brasilia because as many people here will tell you this is where the real power lies in brazil. because rio is where you will find the headquarters of hedge a global the biggest most powerful media conglomerate in south america a news organization with the kind of influence that media barons like rupert murdoch in the u.s. and great britain or silvio berlusconi in italy can only dream of in addition to global we're going to look at t.v. the second biggest network in the country whose owner also founded a church that claims almost two million followers in brazil and eight million

worldwide. well examined broadcasting regulations in brazil which compared to other countries are slashed less regulation means fewer rules not an ideal recipe for responsible journalists and ultimately we'll look at the issue of diversity who gets on brazilian t.v. not just the news side but also the entertainment sector for a country in which more than half the population can trace its roots to africa most of the time the broadcast output looks. the media matter and while the ongoing political power struggles racking brazil began with a case of state corruption the so-called car wash scandal brazilian news outlets starting with global have played a critical role in this story and its political aftermath. the media has become a political player that is powerful enough to influence public opinion.

over the last ten to fifteen years the media took a very vicious against the government. and the country became divided. between the previous government and those who didn't want it to remain in power. it was put thousands and thousands of people in the streets to demonstrate against president dilma don't think. that's politically not journalistic it acted like a political party. at the summit of the brazilian media oligarchy stand the marine neo's the richest family in the country and the owners of global global conglomerate programming nationwide from the amazon in the north to falls in the south and its flagship newscast nasional. is an agenda setting broadcasting

institution. and global is more than a national t.v. network in addition to its one hundred twenty two regionally affiliated t.v. stations you don't radio networks and a twenty four hour news channel it distributes other broadcasters channels on its own satellite in addition to owning the newspapers that gave the company its start back in one nine hundred twenty five there's a well known political maxim here in brazil that sums up just how powerful how influential global has become because like this if global doesn't show it it didn't happen. you know is without any doubt the highest quality news program in the country it is also extremely conservative both politically and socially there are also numerous examples of politicians having time specific decisions and speeches so that they might appear on journalists day what are you going to. get i just

picked it. up is that michelle damn it. remains the most significant national media power associated with political power now. when they. consider for a moment that only fifty percent of brazilians have internet access and that the remaining fifty percent of the poorest of the population you can understand why television has become the most important information service globalism my significant economic and political player in the industry not only because it's the most watched and hardest reaching but also because it's the media that has been most favored by the brazilian state throughout history. globo in the military government the took power in brazil in an one nine hundred sixty four cool had a symbiotic relationship globo back that coup and supported the military dictatorship right through until nine hundred eighty five. only need to do is read the headlines at the old global newspaper in the days following the coup. they were

celebrating the full of a constitutional government of an elected government they supported the coup. the military government they support behind a meeting that was still growing and they facilitated partly by providing public funds and partly by not amazing anyone for going to concentration and i'm sure. that is me is this in two thousand and thirteen almost thirty years after the end of military rule global apologized for backing the coup but not for its coverage of the regime that found the bank when yes mr g. has one for you wages but i wanted it that you know what i view south pacific and global produced some of its most infamous journalism juror in that twenty one year period in january nine hundred eighty four hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of sao paolo demanding a return to democracy global could not ignore the story but instead of reporting

the facts it told its viewers that what they were watching was a celebration fest and some power was also squatters samples it think than a school my thinking and thoughts on any of the artists. in one thousand nine hundred nine in brazil's first national election in more than two decades a debate took place between global's favored candidate sort of nando politics and the leftist candidate lula da silva actually there were two debates the one that really happened and the version of globo edited heavily and put on the air. by risk of the way the debate was edited was one of the biggest scandals in brazilian television history. all goes well. it showed the best of caloric and the worst of lula if done with any luck today he spoils that there's this strain as a loss for me as is my sister's after some time globalist owners became disenchanted with cologne and so they campaigned to get him impeached. book.

it's not only clever it is also true of all the other mainstream media groups that that being aligned historically with politically conservative interests that the family the status quo and supporting the interests of the dominant elite in brazil if you make a historical analysis they continue to act the same representing the same interests . that's what many brazilians saw in the movement that brought down president dilma rousseff last year global and other like minded media groups campaigning to overthrow a democratically elected government. is. countermove against media outlets with political agendas it was born global as reporters in the field were confronted with accusations of backing a coup. a goal in portuguese.

the stuff at the same time a term that was popularized media outlets were called in pensacola which translates to party of the proclaimed press. brazil's powerful media monopolies and grown into what they are largely because of a regulatory vacuum there was no broadcast regulator here which is extraordinary for a country of this size there's no law preventing politicians from owning media outlets so many of them in many countries banned media cross ownership the same proprietor owning multiple media outlets in the same market again brazil has no such law in fact the closest thing to allow regulating the media in this country was passed more than half a century ago. sixty three. it was because that's the way global words every time a brazilian congress tried to change that. has his character assassinated by the

mob there is no law the law is whatever global wants to do. this issue the possibility of regulation i was raised in brazil a few years ago you know what the reaction was from the media they said this was tantamount to censorship they saw the idea that the government wanted to censor the media seems. so media. watch to the will of the media is moggi book two dollars the other brothel if you want to be able to goals other people's groups that's the argument used by the groups who oppose regulation that anyone who wants to endless conflict of trying to censor the content there is a provision in the brazilian constitution that says that media cannot be a monopoly and oligopoly in fact if that had ever been written into regulation we wouldn't be in the situation we find ourselves today. some little constitution prohibits politicians from controlling broadcasters but there's no legislation to

enforce that so there are forty politicians in brazil who directly own radio and t.v. stations you're the mare of a city and you also in the main newspaper radio or t.v. station he use the media to remain in power or you reach power and then you acquire media outlets and use what should be a public service for your own political battle so. what sense does it make these days to feel broadcasting with rules when at the same time you have the internet and heaps of unregulated content regulation does not keep up with the evolution of technology makes no sense saying that the system is dominated by one party pointing and saying that network has forty percent of the market of course someone is always going to be first and someone will always come last it doesn't make sense to regulate television when you can go online and see whatever you want to. deal merch. had not the political courage.

to face will they say that they didn't have the political and senses of the political power to do that but even then when duma was kicked out of power they recognized that he had made. too but is it dangerous. they blinked and kicked him out of power we contacted globo to give the company a chance to respond to its critics it chose not to global does have its competitors all of them owned by wealthy families or individuals however plurality in media ownership here has failed to deliver a plurality of views media owners in brazil are without exception white and conservative they compete for audiences but do so mostly from the same political and social points of view. to me we see brazil did not even have

a publicly owned t.v. broadcaster until ten years ago when dilma rousseff predecessor the our forementioned lula da silva was president he created e.v.c. over the objections of private media owners having got it start decades after its competitors a.b.c. has a lot of catching up to do its ratings are microscopic less than a one percent share when it was launched conservatives called the b.c. . they can't even do that anymore last year president to mayor appointed one of his political allies to run the channel one organization the change the ownership formula on the private side of the t.v. network called. its owner is a billionaire a deer in the sado who doubles as a church bishop he is the founder of the universal church of the kingdom of god one of brazil's biggest evangelical churches and one of the fastest growing churches of its kind anywhere in the world business resumes for. mission of televangelism the

use of t.v. channels by religious figures to reach new audiences got its start in the one nine hundred ninety s. various churches like macedo rented airtime on conventional channels like a quarter g. t.v. feed the dog this will see the televangelists saw their congregations grow and raked in more and more donations. by nine hundred eighty nine macedo no longer needed to read air time by the hour he and his church had the financial muscle to buy her out right yeah yeah you can guess what happens next when you have a t.v. network you have power at their must say though isn't in government but he has power because he has a t.v. network he speaks to millions. so anyone running for election in brazil has no choice but to ask for the blessings

of added my saved on the other because they speak to a huge number of people who are always voters so then everyone goes to kiss every time i say those not just the right we are the left but the left to educate it is this all the way to the us oh but you can add their must say though and universal church acquired it cause the chain reaction from then on a race was established in brazil among other churches to also get t.v. stations but the economic crisis private television channels increased the practice of renting out airtime to religious groups who can pay so the crisis has ended up pushing private television into the arms of these churches. and the discourse spread by many of these religious leaders is very hostile to those of african heritage to women's rights march someone who was. specifically has criminalized brazilian religions portraying them as devil worship

some groups have actually been legal cases against technology forcing them to broadcast programs which t.v. is diligence with morris such. as any joins. i feel. i can categorically say that meal pentecostal evangelical churches are the pinnacle of extreme right wing reactionary attitudes. in brazil today. one might think that brazil's church owned or affiliated t.v. channels would not have that much in common with globo and other purely for martial outlets however the content isn't all that different. the programming is just as allowed women are objectified in much the same way and whether the channel is owned by a businessman in a pinstripe suit or someone broadcasting from an electronic pulp at the politics tend to follow the same line a little bit as a brazilian and doesn't want to lose

a single centimeter of its privilege it's a very selfish elite and i'm not even talking about a political event i'm talking about the truly which is positioned well above this and yes what i'm talking about is the people who own the mainstream. then there are the twin issues of diversity and depiction fifty four percent of the brazilian population is of african descent you can see the legacy of the slave trade in the faces here brazil was the last country in the western world to abolish slavery it did so in eight hundred eighty eight twenty years after the u.s. did but despite the fact that more than half this country has african roots you may have noticed that almost all of the faces that you have seen so far in the clips that we've shown you from brazilian television either corporate media or religious channels have one thing in common they're white. if you turn on the t.v.

in brazil there are hardly any black actors or presenters hardly any black journalists this is across all of the mainstream channels we are not seen there the only disability of black people in spaces of power is a clarion call to get. your facts protected. just go to the news room of any newspaper or television station and look at the journalists working that almost all of them. a white so the coverage of black people on television or in the brazilian news must go through the heart and the work of the white. yellow here for this kind of television reinforces stereotypes of the time it reinforces the myth is racial democracy and that everyone has rights and equality and everything is ok to them except. so when certain issues are covered for example when we try to raise the issue of black genocide that every twenty minutes a young black person is murdered in brazil how does it end up being portrayed it's

always shootouts in the pacific and the criminals were killed it isn't even an attitude that serves to inform the public of the fact in brazil a country that was the last in the world to abolish slavery. the depiction of that brazilian reality does not just occur in news programming the same can be seen on the entertainment side and the brazilian soap operas known as telling of telling novellas are an integrity part of the brazilian media storm for reasons both social and financial a successful tele novella will capture huge audiences routinely in the tens of millions their plot twists will drive everyday conversation in brazil. was one for the networks producing them all of which face the economic challenges born of the digital revolution telling novellas are still cash cows one of them

global ave to brazil reportedly delivered ad revenues of about one billion dollars . and kelly novellas have something the brazilian news programs do not they have international reach global's flagship newscast show now nasional dominates domestic news ratings here but relatively few people outside brazil will ever see telling novellas are an export industry have a need of a. israel has been transmitted in one hundred thirty countries in one thousand languages in that respect talent of allies are the face that brazil shows to the world and much like the country's newscasters the faces that get shown are nothing less than a misrepresentation of what brazil really because again they're mostly white. in the soap operas of brazil we have a rich world a happy world a white world what is it that a soap opera does it enters the general public's home and tells a child who is still growing up what they are not going to be.

the places they cannot reach brazilian private television does this every day every day. but is. an example in adaptations of books in which the main characters are black when they make them into t.v. c.d.'s the custom is white age akina duplicated is so my skin. and when we ask why did you put a white actor to play the role of a black character this is it doesn't make a difference and this has happened in some very famous seedings in brazil in the past like the south or the sleet and she came your guns out there sooner than isabel pm how game of you geneva you know. this is scary. this cat was not talking to you it may not happen today because now we have a platform where we are able to protest because of the internet we can make some noise or more after

a lot of pressure from the black movement you can see little by little black actors gain in leading roles and soap operas. much of. my little music music however it is an illusion to them that placing a black person on television solves the problem the way that black people are by trade to most of the mainstream media follows underage atomizes the structural racism that we have in brazil. because the successful well the well that was his whites and then when the commercials come on a white person comes along as a representative of the buying power of the quizzes to power there what about. the shipment today and then afterwards when the news comes on there's a black person robbing there's a black person being arrested but if he is going to see him for money sheffield out to do so every day private television in brazil attacks brazilians it would miss post enemy and finally back to global and the story of the brazilian t.v.

beauty queen just as examples of media malpractise in this country go it is nowhere near the worst but it is revealing. the title global laser was created by global it's a beauty contest tied to its coverage of brazil's annual carnival that word mulatto which some say has its roots in the word meaning mule is considered racist a word loaded with colonial connotations chosen by global for a beauty contest a stance oblique held to celebrate racial integration viewers get to vote for the global ace and two thousand and fourteen marked a first the winner giustina was dark skinned and unmistakably blah blah. blah. ny. not everyone approved online trolls call just you know a monkey a darkie

a few months later global had just you know replaced it set the results of the vote aside and simply picked another woman go insisted that its decision had nothing to do with skin color or that the choice came down to artistic fitness for the role it said artistic merit prevailed. the woman global picked to replace just you know had african roots as well but risk. intone is much lighter and as one of the country's relatively few news readers of african descent will tell you in the brazilian media racial integration has its limits. i'm a black woman but i have a skin tone that is a little lighter and i can say that i am privileged because the dog was the more you have to suffer. it was an official whitening policy in brazil the initiative that brought european immigrants here after the abolition of slavery was not accidental it was done in order to whiten the population because

they believed that within two hundred lose there would be no more blacks in brazil but we're still here in this country which still denies its african origin and which runs on the idea that the whiter the better. in a way the story of that beauty queen typifies the way globo sees brazil back in one thousand nine hundred eighty four the network supported a military coup that brought down a government brazilians had voted for two years ago global call its viewers on to the streets to help depose another democratically elected government global is not even above overturning a public vote for a beauty queen if the choice of the people fails to align with the network's idea of who should represent brazil. you've been watching a special edition of our program on the brazilian media who they are who they are not and the influence they wield in this the world's fifth most populous country

with you next time you're at the listening. a diagnosis that used to be let's hope the terrorist cells and they are what we're trying to do is really energize them insist that it's like a rocket that can recognize a cell. finding the cancer that's exactly you've had some pretty amazing results and they're making it look you. know this time. we've now reached one hundred days i was placed on the one hundred days of diplomatic social and economic adversity and as the crisis continues we're looking at the battles to influence opinion both on and offline share your views with the hash tag right from the heart of the story here in crisis special on news. in the

next episode of science in a golden age exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval islamic period in the field of chemistry they transformed the superstition of alchemy into the science of chemistry. many of his kind. of those which may still be used today. science a new golden age with professor jim a look at this time. hello i'm don jordan doha with a quick reminder of the top stories here al-jazeera a meeting of the arab league in cairo has descended into a shouting match as ministers from the four states blockading the gulf nation that insults the u.s. saudi arabia and egypt diplomatic ties with qatar a hundred days ago.