Nassif: 'Estadão' uses false information about the government and privatizations in Sunday's headline.
Journalist claims that the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper distorts the facts to attack the Lula government.
247 - The journalist Luis Nassif, in a text published in GGN this Sunday (23), accuses State St. Paul for having used false information to guide its main headline this morning: "States are going against the Union and planning privatizations".
The report states that the Lula (PT) government is "averse to privatizations," but that it "is eyeing private initiatives to leverage infrastructure investments." It then quotes the Minister of Transport, Renan Filho (MDB), regarding highway concessions: "We are structuring highway concessions and working to release four or five in this first year."
>>> Noblat criticizes the "so-called serious" press for attacks on Janja.
"In other words, I'm against privatizations, but I'm going to encourage privatizations. Do you understand? Me neither," Nassif points out.
The newspaper contradicts itself again when it says that "in the pursuit of private capital and in an anti-privatization context, the economic team's discourse has also been one of reinforcing the use of PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships)."
"In other words, the government's economic focus is in favor of PPPs, even though the government is against privatization. Do you understand? Me neither," the journalist emphasizes once again.
Another questioned passage states: “Based on the announced measure, PPP operations carried out by states and municipalities will have guarantees from the Union. The National Treasury will guarantee the counterpart funds and, in case of default, may access resources from mandatory transfers from the State Participation Fund (FPE) and the Municipal Participation Fund (FPM). According to the Treasury Secretary, Rogério Ceron, the measure has the potential to leverage R$ 100 billion in investments and unlock 150 projects that are currently structured but have not yet been implemented.”
"The federal government's role will be central to enabling state and municipal PPPs. But how, if the federal government is going against the states' lead?" asks Nassif.
After dismantling the text from Estado de S. Paulo, Nassif claims that the newspaper distorts the facts to attack the Lula government. "When analyzed, it's a good report, with a good number of interviewees and angles. But the headline needs to be against Lula. And, to do so, it needs to distort the facts."