In homage to Rádio Nacional da Amazônia, criticisms of the dismantling of EBC.

The Chamber held a session this Wednesday morning to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Rádio Nacional da Amazônia, one of the EBC's radio stations, which went off the air in March after equipment was damaged by lightning. Because the Temer government's order is to dismantle the public communication system managed by EBC, the repairs were not carried out (a precarious "illegal connection" was made), harming millions of Amazonians who rely on the station as an important means of information and interpersonal communication. The session, naturally, opened space for criticism of the continued process of converting public channels into instruments of government propaganda, with the breakdown of financial sustainability and the distortion of their legal framework. The initiative came from Congressman Jean Willys and other members of Frentecom, the Parliamentary Front for Freedom of Expression and the Right to Communication with Popular Participation.

Only those who live in or know the Amazon well can truly appreciate the weight of isolation and loneliness for the people who live in that vast expanse, separated by kilometers of forests and rivers. Those who enjoy the wide range of communication options provided by various urban technologies – from cell phones to the internet, including social networks – cannot assess the importance that a warning, a message, or a cry for help that arrives via radio waves has for them. 

The great void of magnetic signal and communication that existed in the Amazon began to be broken on September 1, 1977, with the start of shortwave transmissions by Radio Nacional da Amazônia. At that time, the radio signals reaching the region were only those from foreign stations, including those from the United States and the Soviet Union.  

Radio Nacional da Amazônia's signal reaches half of the national territory and approximately 60 million people. Before its activities were suspended last March, when its transmitters were damaged by a lightning strike, it reached the entire northern region, as well as Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Goiás, and other states.

During President Lula's administration, when I presided over EBC, investments were made in renewing the equipment for all channels operated by EBC, including the RNA transmission system. After the parliamentary coup, there was intervention in EBC, the distortion of its legal framework, with the end of the Board of Trustees and the mandate of the CEO, McCarthyism against those from the previous administration, and the financial strangulation of the company. With the lightning strike in March, RNA went off the air. As I said in my speech, the station, despite its importance, was yet another victim of austerity, this assassination of achievements that has been happening in the name of austerity.  

Through Radio Nacional da Amazônia, communities in the region not only receive information and a minimum of entertainment, but also share their values ​​and rich cultural diversity. More than that, they also find in Radio Nacional da Amazônia a channel that shortens great distances, allowing them to send messages that are crucial to their daily lives.

The program "Ponto de Encontro" (Meeting Point), for example, over the years dedicated itself to reading letters and messages from residents wishing or needing to notify a relative who would be arriving and should be picked up at a specific point, or requesting help for a sick person on the bank of a river who needed to be picked up by boat. Or simply to send greetings to relatives and friends who lived in another area of ​​the region. Broadcasting from five in the morning until midnight, for 40 years the station integrated the population and preserved the sense of citizenship and belonging to the Brazilian nation, also maintaining unity through our language.

The Amazon Journal, another historic program of the station, always aired in two daily editions, covering national issues as well as those of specific interest to the region. RNA's airwaves also carried music and information about health, education, and other public services.

The denunciation of the dismantling of EBC, as was inevitable, punctuated all the speeches at the event, such as those of deputies Jean Willys and Edmilson Rodrigues, Senator Vanessa Grazziotin, and Bia Barbosa, coordinator of FNDC and the Intervozes Collective.