The Truth Commission may investigate the press.

Citizenship Blog - In recent weeks, the press has reported that the Truth Commission, which is investigating the collaboration of public and private agents with the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985 in order to produce a historical report, is investigating the participation of businessmen and even football governing bodies with that regime.

However, to date, the Truth Commission has not disclosed whether it will investigate the actions of certain private agents who played a key role in carrying out the 1964 coup and sustaining it in the following years, until the repression increased to the point where those who requested and supported the dictatorship understood that in dictatorships, only the dictator wins.

To understand how it is possible that a Commission that intends to uncover the truth is, apparently, leaving out precisely the sector of society that worked most successfully and most openly for the implementation of the authoritarian regime in Brazil during the 1960s, the Blog da Cidadania turned to the president of the State Truth Commission of the State of São Paulo and of the Human Rights Commission of the São Paulo Legislative Assembly, Deputy Adriano Diogo (PT-SP).

Read below, therefore, the interview that the state representative in question gave to the Blog da Cidadania this Tuesday, March 19, 2013.

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CITIZENSHIP BLOG – Representative Adriano Diogo, good morning. You preside over the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo and the State Truth Commission that operates within that House, correct?

ADRIANO DIOGO Yes, but I have to explain that the State Truth Commission is not a state commission; it's a commission created within the Legislative Assembly. So, from the Legislative Assembly, we created the Truth Commission of the State of São Paulo.

It's not a bill, it's a resolution. The Commission has grown so much that people think it belongs to the State of São Paulo, but it hasn't had any support from the State government. We, the deputies, only worked within the scope of the Legislative Assembly.

BLOG DA CIDADANIA – Congressman, the press has reported that the National Truth Commission is investigating the actions of various sectors of society during the dictatorship in a collaborative manner.

There would be businessmen involved. It's clearly being discussed in Folha today about FIESP, and a little while ago [off the record] you spoke to me about the relationship between football entities and individuals with the same dictatorship, especially in São Paulo football.

But there is one sector, Congressman, that had a strong connection with the dictatorship and about which, until now, nothing has been said.

So, very briefly, I would like you to explain how the press, the mainstream press, acted in the context of the coup, at the time of the coup, and in the subsequent support of that coup, which a large part of the press, the mainstream press, provided during and with the dictatorship.

We know that various media outlets – print media, electronic media – had ties to the dictatorship, and so far, nothing about this has been mentioned in the Truth Commission. Is this not going to be investigated?

ADRIANO DIOGO – The coup was carried out with the full support of the press. Full support. The only major newspaper that opposed the coup was Última Hora. Of course, the Bloch family [Manchete magazine] were very cautious... But, in the mainstream press, the coup was heralded and supported, especially in the first years [of the dictatorship], by many sectors of the press.

The Estadão and Jornal da Tarde newspapers, which supported the dictatorship, the coup, Ademar de Barros, and the March of the Family with God for Liberty – which was absurd, it was a coup – ended up being affected by censorship.

Estadão and O Globo were extremely important newspapers in the decreeing and support of the coup, which doesn't mean that the journalists at those companies were coup plotters. It was their bosses who were.

That newspaper, Shopping News or City News, had a journalist who wrote articles against Wladimir Herzog, against the Journalists' Union, and against TV Cultura. He called for Wladimir's head and that of his colleagues every weekend in São Paulo. He called for Wladimir's arrest.

So, the actions of the press [during the dictatorship] were cruel.

CITIZENSHIP BLOG – So, Congressman, you're telling me about the press's actions during that period, which is something everyone is more or less aware of. But in the Truth Commission, at least according to what the press has reported, there's no mention of investigating this press activity.

ADRIANO DIOGO Well, the National Truth Commission has now changed coordinators. Diplomat Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has taken over the Commission. Previously, it was former Attorney General of the Republic, Dr. Claudio Fonteles.

Possibly, now they will change their approach. And I think that, at some point, this chapter will have to be addressed – always remembering that one thing was the press, another thing was certain journalistic companies that lent vehicles [to the dictatorship to transport political prisoners], [that encouraged] repression and had a direct role [in the dictatorship]. A direct role!

It's clear that these issues will have to be addressed. Otherwise, the truth will not be complete. It will be a commission of half-truths. And there is no such thing as half-truths.

Now, everything is a process. This year, on March 31st, the coup will be 49 years old, and nothing – or very little – is known about the 64 coup. It's a taboo subject. It's very difficult to tell the truth in a country of lies.

CITIZENSHIP BLOG "So, Congressman: it's very difficult to tell the truth in a country of lies. That's the big issue because, right now, we see the mainstream media saying that your party, the PT, is trying to install censorship in Brazil through the party's positions in favor of regulating electronic media via a new regulatory framework."

At this point, wouldn't it be very good if a Commission that claims – or at least claims – to be seeking the truth would show the country what the behavior of these media companies was that are now talking about censorship and accusing your party of being a party of censors?

My question, therefore, is whether you have any information regarding any intention, even considered, within the Truth Commission to investigate the actions of the press – or a part of the press – during the dictatorship.

ADRIANO DIOGO – I didn't say that. I said that, up to this point, the role of the press and journalistic companies hasn't been addressed. I'm not saying that it won't be addressed. I didn't say that.

CITIZENSHIP BLOG – But, so far, it hasn't happened?

ADRIANO DIOGO – At least so far, [I think] it hasn't been. But the National Commission doesn't release the content of the material, the testimonies. That will only be done through a report to be published [at the end of the Truth Commission's work]. Until then, we [from the State Commission] don't have access.

But I assure you of the following: in the São Paulo Commission, everything within reach, everything that is documented, will be investigated and made public.

I comment that even today it is not known whether April 1st was the day after the coup or the day of the coup because even that was changed by the military so as not to characterize the coup as the "coup of lies," because April 1st is April Fool's Day.

All of this will be clarified because all the archives of the State of São Paulo will be opened to the public, which will be our contribution – from our Commission, from São Paulo. We will ensure that all the archives of the DOPS [Department of Political and Social Order, a repressive organ of the dictatorship], of all the repressive organs of the State of São Paulo, are opened to the public on the [next] 1st at the State Archives.

Thus, it is evident that the role of the press, which includes certain media companies, will be investigated.

What I am trying to explain is that the Truth Commission is not a technical commission, it is a commission of the Brazilian people. (...) It does not belong to a group of experts.

What I'm trying to say, therefore, is that the Truth Commission is like the Brazilian Amnesty movement. A large popular movement, throughout Brazil, in universities, unions, and associations of architects, engineers, and lawyers – like the OAB of São Paulo – to tell this truth.

This report will not be a document that sits on a shelf. The participation of everyone involved must be made public. From Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo), to media companies, to automotive companies... Everyone who contributed to the coup, as happened in Nazi Germany, will have to come forward. Our holocaust cannot be told in halves.

CITIZENSHIP BLOG – So, as I understand it, Congressman, you don't believe it will be possible to exclude the press from this investigation. Is that correct?

ADRIANO DIOGO No one can be excluded.