We welcome new contributor Martin Butera, reporting from Brasilia DF, Brazil. In his first article, he examines the growing crackdown on free radio in that country. Readers should note the parallels between unlicensed radio there and in the US, where stations in dense urban areas are often employed by communities and populations not well served by the dominant public and commercial broadcasters. -Eds.
Search warrants by the Federal Police for the seizure of radio stations that operate outside the law in Brazil have been constant this year.
Through a statement, the national telecommunications regulator Anatel reported that, on average, it turned off about six unlicensed stations a day throughout the country in the year to date. The problem is mainly concentrated in large urban centers such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
In the last three years under the government of president Jair Bolsonaro more than 6,700 unlicensed stations have already been closed in Brazil, according to data from the country’s radio and television industry association, ABERT (Associação Brasileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão). This represents double the total number of authorizations granted by the Ministry of Communications for community radios in the last ten years.
The raids by Anatel are generally violent. Members of the Federal Police, together with members of the COE (Special Operations Command) of the Military Police, using armored vehicles, are in charge of dismantling the transmission of so-called “pirate” radios, which, according to the Brazilian telecommunications agency, make it difficult for aircraft pilots to communicate with control tower operators.
(The aircraft radio band begins just above the FM band at 108 MHz, and interference with aircraft communications has long been an argument used to justify combating unlicensed radio in the US as well. -ed.)
(Federal Police disclosure): Agent of the Brazilian Federal Police, entering free radio to confiscate the equipment
According to Anatel, the most affected airport is Santos Dummont, which is located about 10 kilometers from the main favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the control tower of Guarulhos Airport in Greater São Paulo. According to an estimate by the agency, just in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo there are around four thousand such stations.
Favela is the name given in Brazil to the precarious or informal settlements that grow around or within the country’s large cities.
According to the latest 2019 data and measurements from The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 22.03% of the 6.3 million inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro live in favelas. That is, 1.4 million people reside in these irregular settlements, making it the city with the most neighborhoods of this type in the country, even above that nation’s largest city, São Paulo, where 1.28 million reside in 1,020 favelas.
But the National Telecommunications Agency also says that by illegally occupying random frequencies, these stations not only interfere with communication between control towers and airplanes, they also interfere with frequencies of hospitals and ambulances, as well as security forces and their vehicles, putting thousands of people at risk every day or making it difficult for them to help.
When they are unable to prove the interference caused by this type of radio, the Federal Police and the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency end up claiming that the closures are justified in some other way, sometimes claiming the stations have some connection with drug trafficking.
People found guilty of the crime of unlicensed telecommunications may serve up to four years in detention in Brazil. However, arrests are not common, especially if stations are unoccupied, or suspected operators destroy transmission equipment.
The Federal Police claim that all the stations that do not have an operating license from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) are considered “pirates,” even though many call themselves community radio stations.
(Federal Police disclosure): Pirate transmitter equipment, found by the Brazilian Federal Police Agents, camouflaged in a mountain
The persecution of free radio stations is so pervasive that now the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) has joined in to fight them, ostensibly to fight interference with aircraft radios.
The FAB periodically scans the FM band, attempting to identify possible interference within a 10 km radius around Brazilian airports. After that, the approximate locations are passed on to the Special Operations Command teams of the Military Police, who are in charge of disabling the pirate transmitters.
Also the Regional Flight Protection Service of São Paulo (SRPV-SP), linked to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), decided to act more harshly against pirate radios that have interfered in the airspace and intends to change the form of communication between the pilot and the tower control to make the message clearer.
According to data from the SRPV-SP (São Paulo Regional Flight Protection Service), so far in 2021 there was an increase of 163% in instances of interference – from 65 in 2020 to 171 this year. The difference is partially explained by the change in how aircraft control personnel log these instances. To demonstrate the severity of the problem, all possible occurrences of interference are now counted, not just the most egregious.
To continue with this report, it is necessary to understand the difference that exists in Brazil between “Pirate Radio” and Community Radio.
“Pirate Radio” in Brazil:
The term arose in the early 1960s in England to identify transmissions, whose transmitting station was on a ship off the British coast, but outside the control of nautical miles. These stations, considered illegal by the British government, were created by young people who did not accept the state monopoly and did not support the programming of official stations controlled by the government.
In Brazil, the term was adapted without worrying about its origin and began, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, to identify irregular radio stations. In São Paulo, the term was also used in the eighties and nineties by some radio stations, themselves, but soon after it was dropped.
In Rio de Janeiro, for example, all unauthorized stations were confused with clandestine broadcasts – which work hard to avoid being identified and tend to have political objectives – and more conventional unlicensed broadcasts.
As elsewhere in the world, in Brazil the term “pirate” came to be used as a catch-all pejorative term to describe all sorts of activity outside the law, especially by the owners of large radio and television networks and the cultural production industry, often when identifying unauthorized copies of their music, cinema and video products..
Community Radio in Brazil:
The Community Broadcasting Service was created in Brazil by Law 9612 of 1998, regulated by Decree 2615 of the same year. Stations operate on the FM band with low power (25 watts) and coverage restricted to a radius of 1 km from the transmitting antenna. Only non-profit community associations and foundations based in the place where the service is provided may operate a station.
Community radio stations must have pluralistic programming, without any type of censorship, and must be open to the expression of all the inhabitants of the region served. This is intended to provide a communication channel entirely dedicated to the community, opening the opportunity for the dissemination of its ideas, culture and traditions.
The Problem of Community and Free Radio
The history of community radio stations in Brazil begins in 1987, at the beginning of the discussions in the National Constituent Assembly. At that time, it was already understood that it was important to democratize the media through community broadcasting, with local and free stations aimed at the community.
A group led by professors from the Faculty of Communication and Arts of USP (University of São Paulo), managed to approve an article in the Federal Constitution of 1988 that guarantees freedom of expression in intellectual, artistic, scientific and communication activities, regardless of censorship or license. Almost 10 years passed until the Community Broadcasting Service was created.
However, there are several community and free radio stations in Brazil that operate without recognizing the legitimacy of Anatel. These are still on the air, inspired by independent media movements, for the purpose of creating their own media without depending on the media linked to large corporations.
Nowadays, setting up a radio is relatively easy, with an approved FM transmitter, a laptop or desktop computer, a table and a microphone are enough. However, the operation of these radios are officially illegal, and called “pirate.” They broadcast without authorization, in part, because that license can be difficult to obtain.
An article published in the Brazilian Press Observer details research demonstrating a strong relationship between community radio licenses and political influence, characterizing it as “electronic colonialism.” Reviewing a study of stations on air from 1999 to 2004 – the first five years of the office Community Broadcasting Service – it shows that about half of authorized community radio stations are linked to local politicians, noting that the granting of licenses has value in “retail politics.”
It also draws attention to the determination of what is called the “political godfather” in obtaining the concession and authorization; without this it is almost impossible to obtain an official permit to operate a community or free radio station.
Background and Research on Brazilian Community and “Pirate” Radio
There is very little bibliography on this subject, most of it is written in academic papers.
There is a book in Brazil called “Rádios Livres – a Reforma Agrária no Ar“, now out of print and totally out of date
The book ,written by journalists Arlindo Machado, Caio Magri and Marcelo Masagão, brings together various experiences of community and free radio stations in the history of the country. Between the years of the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), he recounts how the Brazilian youth bravely resisted with several free radio stations throughout the national territory against repression.
The book, first published in 1986, also has transcripts of several manifestos of these experiences, most of which were self-managed and had a libertarian ideology (be it anarchist or communist).
In addition to being a historical document that records the main libertarian radio experiences in Brazil, the book also brings a deep and necessary discussion on the democratization of the media in the country.
Radio Favela
However, without much written literature on this subject, free radio reaches the cinema thanks to “Radio Favela“, a Brazilian film, directed by Helvécio Ratton and released in 2002.
Based on true events, this film tells the story of a radio station that was created by a group of boys from the favelas of Belo Horizonte in the 1980s. Despite being persecuted for more than twenty years, its audacious programming and its spontaneous language were the keys to his audience success.
The protagonist of the story is Jorge (Alexandre Moreno), a boy who lives between two worlds: that of the favela where he lives, and that of the middle-class school where he studies, since his mother works there as a cleaner to pay for his studies. He is the leader, creator and announcer of Radio Favela.
His companions in this free radio station are Zequiel (Adolfo Moura), who is in charge of the technical part; Roque (Babu Santana), an uprooted and ambitious drug dealer; and Brau (Benjamín Abras), the group’s poet, who finds his way out of favela life in rhythm, black music, and dance.
One day there is a big police raid in the alleys of the favelas. While the drug traffickers flee or camouflage their merchandise, the pirate radio warns the residents to protect themselves.
The objective of the police is not drug trafficking, but to locate the voice of pirate radio: they want to silence it. When Jorge is arrested, his collaborators and friends will make sure that the voice of the favela continues in the air.
Finally a very good report on free radios in the 1990s in Brazil can be found on YouTube.
In 1995, the Vitrine program, of TV Cultura de São Paulo, aired a report on the free radio movement that had a great explosion in the mid-nineties.
The reporter James Capelli visited three stations that operated in São Paulo, in different parts of the city: Conexão, Free and Onze.
The first sought to accommodate the problems of the neighborhood, in addition to accommodating people who had never had radio experience.
The second was a church-related station.
The third was an experience that mixed people linked to the Academic Center of the Faculty of Law of USP (University of São Paulo) and residents of the center of São Paulo.
At that time, the report announced that the government at the time would send a law to Congress to regulate these radios without licenses. After a long time and much discussion, the law for community and free radio came out, but little changed.
Final Conclusion
It would be impossible in a single report to tell the complete story of community or free broadcasting in Brazil. However, this publication can serve as a starting point for potential researchers who want to know more about the subject.
People who set up a community or free radio, just want a space to work, community or free radio, they do not crash planes in the sky.
Although it seems obsolete to be talking about community radio or free-to-air radio by frequency modulated by the imminent advance of the internet, I must tell you that here still in Brazil, there are many people without internet access, even more so when we talk about favelas.
That is why it is very important that each neighborhood has its community and free radio and television, this will help the economy, culture, sports, public health and education of the neighborhood.
Due to political interests and institutional bureaucracy, these radios end up navigating the sea of illegality and end up being classified as clandestine and criminal stations.
It is our duty to remain vigilant of the violations against freedom of expression, anywhere in the world.
I agree that radio frequencies are a public good that should be controlled and penalized by Anatel, but we must study case by case, so that acts of censorship are not discussed.
About the Author
Martin Butera is a founding member of Radio Atomika, a station that is part of the second generation of radio alternatives, countercultural, alegal, free, self-managed, pirates born in the heat of Argentinazo 2001 (great Argentine economic crisis).
In 2013 to celebrate 10 years of the station (2003-2013), they edit a documentary called “Proudly Clandestinos”, a compilation with testimonies of the protagonists who worked at the station, can be seen on YouTube in Spanish
He left the project in 2017, when he went to live in Brasília DF, capital of Brazil, where he continues to work in alternative media.
Butera is also a radio amateur with more than 31 years of experience and has participated in DXpedition, throughout South America using the Argentine radio callsign LU9EFO and the Brazilian callsign PT2ZDX.
He has also contributed to some of the world’s leading international magazines and newsletters on broadcasting, and his articles have been published and translated into various languages such as Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, Italian, and even Japanese.
