THE IMPACT OF THE MILITARY
REGIME ON TELEVISION

On March 31, 1964, President João Goulart (1961-1964) was overthrown by a coup d'état that resulted from an alliance of civilian leaders and military officers. The immediate causes of the coup were political and economic decay. Since then, unlike the other Latin American dictator’s styles of military rule, the Brazilian military regime has ruled as an institution. During this time, the military regime has promoted national development by means of the adoption of a new economic and political order based on the National Security Doctrine. According to Wayne A. Selcher, most of the philosophy which guides the revolutionary government is an intellectual result of the Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG), or Higher War College, which has graduated many of the ministers of the military regime and at which both Presidents Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco (1964-1967) and Ernesto Geisel (1974-1979) served as instructors. (1)

This and succeeding chapters will discuss the role of Brazil's National Security Law and relate its functions to the socioeconomic and political situation and to its direct and indirect influences on the development of Brazilian television.

The Dissemination of ESG Doctrine and Objectives

The Escola Superior de Guerra was established and staffed by a small Brazilian military elite with the assistance of an American mission in 1948 The members of the Brazilian group, known as the "Sorbonne Group, "had fought alongside the United States Fourth Army in Italy as the Brazilian Expeditionary Force; ... has graduated at the top of the class at one of the three major army schools; and had attended foreign, mainly United States, schools." (2)

According to Thomas E. Weil, the ESG is engaged in the recruitment and training of a ruling elite." Its principal function is to prepare civilians and military to carry out executive or advisory functions on the formulation, development, planning, or execution of national policies (3). As President Castelo Branco said in a press conference on May 14, 1964, the ESG had had an "‘extraordinary influence’ on those who had participated in it and had formed the revolutionary government. ... All who attended the school [ESG] became convinced that practical solutions to national problems should be completely divorced from partisan interests... . They had learned to work as a team, and they had ‘a global’ and a broad understanding of the problems of national security (4).

The ESG officially created by Decree No. 25,705 on October 22, 1948, is considered the first Brazilian institution to think about the doctrine which has been used by the military government since 1964.(5) Selcher states that the ESG was established along the general lines of the Nation-l War College in Washington (6), however, despite the initial assistance given by the U.S. War College, and despite the name borrowed from its American counterpart, the ESG - a permanent training center - developed its own doctrine ("Security and Development") concerning National Development and National Security (7). According to the ESG’s concept, national security is "the relative degree of guarantee by political, economic, psychosocial, and military actions, that the state provides, at a given time, to the nation which it rules, for the realization of maintenance of the national objectives.(8)

For a long time, national security was considered from the standpoint of Brazil's defense against attack from outside; but after the promulgation of the Decree Law of Administrative Reform of March 1967, national security began to be defined in a broad sense, as the "guarantee of the achievement of the national objectives against internal or external opposition."(9)

In the section on internal security in the National Security Policy, various military, political, economic, and psychosocial objectives are stated (10). For example, in the military field the policy calls for the mobilization of armed forces in the national territory in order to take care of actual or imminent emergency situations, cooperation with undertakings linked to development and security, such as communications bridges, roads, railways, and social assistance. In the political field the policy calls for the improvement of the administrative process of the country, and the organization of the national congress and political parties in order to transform them into democratic institutions. In the economic field there is a call to reform the country's monetary and fiscal policies, to accelerate the formation of capital in order to invest it in sectors of the economic infrastructure, such as communications transportation, the steel industry, and energy, and to improve productivity. In the psychosocial field the policy promotes the fortification of the spiritual, moral, and civic values of the nation, the elaboration of an educational system adapted to Brazilian reality, and the use of systems of social communication in order to clarify public opinion concerning national problems and governmental actions to resolve them. This communication was to be made in an honest, impersonal, and legitimate manner, which would result in growing importance of public relations organizations in all levels of activities.

The National Security Law closely follows the ESG's concept of national security in that the law pays particular attention to Brazil's system of communication, an important area in three of the four fields mentioned above. The military and psychosocial fields, which involve the process of communication (to clarify public opinion and to integrate national territory) are the most important to this study. It should be noted that the Decree-Law of Administrative Reform, signed by President Castelo Branco in 1967, is concerned with internal security at the federal level. The connections among ESG, the National Security Law, and the systems of communication will be more clearly shown in the rest of this chapter, but, for clarity, it should be noted that,

the ESG, however, does not make security policy nor does it have the last word on evolution of the doctrine. Its function is one of research and suggestion to the president and the highest executive agencies, including the Armed Forces general staff, which may take its recommendations or options into account in their decisions. The agency most responsible for making national security policy has been the National Security Council, composed of the President, Vice-President, all cabinet ministers, the heads of the civil and military cabinets and of National Intelligence Service, the chief of Armed Forces general staff, and the chiefs of staff of each of the three Army, Navy, and Air Force service branches. [The National Security Council is composed of 26 persons](11).

The ESG itself does not rule Brazil, but its influence and ideology stress nationalism and, thus, the necessity for a strong central government. Despite the fact that ESG disclaimed any involvement in the government after 1964, according to Barry Ames,

At the time of the coup, three groups comprised the anti-Goulart forces: Castelo Branco and officers and civilians technicians associated with ... the ESG, civilians politicians, and non-ESG officers. The Castelo Branco regime was soon dominated by the ESG group. Civilian politicians like Adhemar de Barros and Carlos Lacerda lost their political influence. Generals sympathetic to the coup but not to the ESG were purged, including Olympio Mourão Filho and Amaury Kruel. The dominance of post-coup policymaking by officers and civilians with essentially ESG goals was facilitated by heavy civilian participation in the Escola. (12)

An example of the indirect involvement of the ESG in the affairs of government after 1964 by means of civilian participation is the fact that during Emílio Garrastazu Médici's term in office (1969-1974) seven civilian cabinet ministers were graduates of the ESG. (13)

The ESG was always directly or indirectly involved in the revolutionary government. For example, Castelo Branco, the first president of the military regime, was an instructor and director of studies of the ESG; General Golbery do Couto e Silva, considered the intellectual of the movement, was the first head of the National Information Service (14), and continued to work closely with Presidents Médici, Geisel, and until mid-1981 with João Batista Figueiredo as a member of the civil cabinet. The concept of national security was spread in Brazil principally by General Golbery do Couto e Silva. (15)

The Objectives of the National Security Council and of the ESG

 The National Security Council (NSC) is the institution that determines national objectives. The president of Brazil is the chairman of this council, which operates as a top-level agency in order to understand how the Doctrine of National Security is transformed into policy, one must examine the objectives of the Escola Superior de Guerra. According to Selcher, the six objectives of the ESG are (1) national integration; (2) sovereignty; (3) development, progress, and national prosperity; (4) democracy; (5) territorial integrity; and (6) social peace. (16) General Carlos de Meira Mattos, however, in his essay entitled "Revolutionary Doctrine Policy" ("Doutrina Política Revolucionária"), published in the magazine of the Military Club in 1970, says that the revolutionary movement's doctrine presents nine national objectives within three classifications: (1) critical objectives, including national integration, and national prosperity; (2) objectives to be defended, including democracy, the moral and spiritual values of the nation, and social peace; (3) objectives to be preserved, including independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international prestige.(17)

This study will limit itself to a discussion of those points in the above which are directly or indirectly related to the system of communication in general or with telecommunications in particular; that is, national integration, territorial integrity, preservation of the moral and spiritual values of the nation, and social peace.

National Development and Security

As has been shown, the promotion of national development by the revolutionary movement of 1964 has been based on the National Security Doctrine, which has its basis in the ESG’s national objectives. Only four of the nine objectives are directly related to the subject of this study, and it must be clarified that here those objectives were considered as being related to and dependent on each other in relation to the communications system. In order to show this relationship, each one of the four selected objectives will be briefly discussed in this section.

The objectives of national integration and territorial integrity have the same goal, that is, national unity. National integration consists of a set of programs designed to increase both societal and spatial integration and to diminish regional diversities by promoting, among 6ther things, economic development, a more stable political system, internal cohesion, and national spirit. As Selcher says, "Government planners are seeking national unity through the creation of national consciousness within a political and economic community linked by a value consensus on the advantages of progress and modernization."(18) He also claims that the achievement of this goal involves transportation, communication, and settlement. It should be noted that the Northeast and the Amazon regions have received special treatment since 1964. In the Amazon, development has been promoted by the Armed Forces by means of the establishment of communications networks, the teaching of agricultural techniques, the construction of bridges and roads, and the provision of transportation and security, for example.

Territorial integrity is related to surveillance in the coastal zone and along Brazil's borders with other countries. It is connected to the National Plan of Telecommunications, which can also be considered as important in the maintenance of territorial integrity and national integration by means of the strategic distribution of radio and television stations along Brazilian frontiers. Table 3 shows the distribution of radio and TV stations throughout the ten Brazilian Border States. (See also "The Future of Brazilian Television" in Chapter 6).

The social peace objective, one of the most studied topics in the ESG during 1962, appeared in response to the economic and political crises during Goulart's term in office. The National Security Council sees social peace as necessary to economic growth, one of the goals of the regime.

TABLE 3

In his analysis of this theme, Selcher says that

Social peace means not only the avoidance of political violence and disruption, such as in the 1967-72 fight against terrorists, but also contained social change, uninterrupted production, strong social organization and discipline with moralistic overtones, and stress on traditional values. Administration takes precedence over politics. This is all maintained via incontrovertible, supposedly apolitical motives equated with patriotism and non-subservience to any subnational interest. (19)

As can be easily seen, the fourth point, the preservation of the nation's moral and spiritual values, has a lot in common with social peace: both concern moral values.

The Military Regime’s Goals through Mass Media

Among other things, the revolutionary movement occurred in order to promote a new social and development order by means of a national building program. Initially the new regime undertook a policy of decentralized incentives to reduce the inequality in living conditions and socioeconomic development among regions and between city and hinterland (see Chapter 5).

That policy also required the building of a national spirit based on the preservation of Brazilian beliefs, culture, and values. In order to achieve these goals, the military regime needed a means of disseminating the ideas of the new order, that is, the revolutionary movement's aspirations and concepts of development, peace, and integrity. The mass media became the means by which the movement could persuade, impose, and spread its positions in order to maintain the post coup status quo.

It is important to understand the ESG’s concept of communication. According to the Brazilian Higher War College, communication is the process by which human relations exist and develop. Moreover, the ESG states that communication is the process of transmitting something in order to exert a conscious influence on the receiver of the communication, whose reaction will affect the starting point, that is, the sender of the message (20). The military regime, basing its actions on a doctrine of "security and development", (21) is responsible for the establishment of such institutions as the Ministry of Communication, the National Department of Telecommunications (Dentel), the Brazilian Telecommunications Enterprise (Embratel), the National Communication Council, and of many laws and decrees that contributed to the development of the basic structure necessary for the socioeconomic, political, and cultural development of the country in general terms, and of telecommunications in particular.

By creating operational conditions for Brazilian telecommunications (principally for the telephone system) - access to microwave networks, coaxial cables, satellites, and color television, for example - the military regime contributed to the technical development of television and used it to promote the ideas of the regime. As a case in point, President M6dici gained political advantage from the national euphoria resulting from Brazil's triumph in the World Soccer Cup in Mexico in 1970. At this time, a national campaign broadcast many slogans which helped to transform the Médici administration (one of the most repressive) into one of the most popular of the revolutionary movement.(22)

However, it was during Presidents Médici and Geisel’s terms in office (from 1969 to 1979) that Brazilian television was most directly influenced by the government, which, in addition to furthering television's technical development, began to be concerned about program content. It was during this period that the sweeping Institutional Act No.5, of December 13, 1968, was used to cancel electoral mandates, to suspend habeas corpus, to decree federal interventions without constitutional safeguards, and to impose strict censorship, primarily on television and radio stations.

Thus, it can be said that in Brazil the short and long-term actions of the military regime to accelerate order, progress, security, and modernization (actions which included strong state participation in the economy, friendliness to multinational investors, development of conditions to national integration by means of the telecommunication system) contributed, directly and indirectly, to the development of Brazilian television. The fact that this medium, in turn, has benefited from the social, political and economic situation of the 1964-1980 period is proven by its considerable development, both technically and qualitatively, during that time span. This development has been principally because the government was concerned about the content and quality of television programming and therefore created conditions necessary for that development.

The military regime's influence on the development of television will be discussed in the following chapters from the points-of-view of communication policy, and the economic and political situations which were imposed or came about as a consequence of the actions of the government. It was during M6dici's term in office that the so-called Brazilian Economic Miracle occurred, and it was during the same period that the government also began to be concerned with the content and production of television programming.

PREFACE / INTRODUCTION / 1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF BRAZILIAN TELEVISION / 2. THE IMPACT OF THE MILITARY REGIME ON TELEVISION / 3. THE INFLUENCE OF COMMUNICATION LAWS AND REGULATORY AGENCIES ON THE GROWTH OF TELEVISION / 4. POLITICAL INFLUENCES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEVISION / 5. SOCIOECONOMIC INFLUENCES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEVISION / 6.SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS / 7. NOTES / 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY / 9. ABOUT THE AUTHOR