It is Sunday. It is the decisive day of the most important elections since Brazil returned to democracy. The country plays a key role in the world’s geopolitics, especially in Latin America.
Since 2019, when the current president took office, we knew the following four years would not be easy. And indeed, they were not easy from the very beginning. On January 1st, during the swearing-in ceremony in the city of Brasília, our staff, as well as a big part of the media, faced the government’s treatment towards media outlets.
Nothing has got better ever since. Media outlets committed to data science, investigating facts, and which keeps respecting institutions had countless difficulties to work and provide information that, in other moments, were shared through Brazil’s Transparency Portal and Access to Information Law. The difficulties in accessing places, institutional statements, and even structural conditions were enormous.
We know how crucial the media’s role is. Also, we understand Brasil de Fato’s position in such a scenario. Therefore, we did not move back. Our journalistic agenda is and has always been aligned with the interests of the working class and popular movements. However, it never meant giving up a good journalistic practice grounded in rigorous verification.
Since 2016, we have been covering a country dealing with many issues. Six years ago, we watched a coup against Brazil’s first female president, who was unfairly impeached under the fragile argument of accounting moves. It happened due to a broad alliance between the mainstream media, part of the Legislative power and sectors of the Judiciary power to oust Roussef from office. We will not forget.
After the coup, we lived two years of an institutionally very unstable government. Michel Temer started dismantling the rights and historic institutional mechanisms the working class achieved. In 2018, with the arrest of former President Lula, who was leading the polls for that year's elections, the possibility of Bolsonaro winning the elections was built. Then came four years of an inept government, to say the least.
From then on, media professionals did not have peace. There have been numerous occasions when we felt attacked in our profession due to the large amount of fake news released by a very expensive apparatus, or due to the violence against media professionals, especially women, verbally insulted by the current president and his supporters. By the way, the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous affairs specialist Bruno Pereira were murdered by Brazilian agribusiness, which received a carte blanche to act violently against Indigenous peoples in northern Brazil.
On Sunday, a new history will begin to be built. We, from Brasil de Fato, have been preparing ourselves throughout the year. We have been seeking to give you information we consider relevant to help the Brazilian population to take the best decision. With investigation, credibility, agility, and analysis.
Remember: we are not neutral. We stand with the Brazilian people. We stand with those who are struggling to feed their kids. We stand with people that fight to produce food. We are on the side of unemployed workers or people who are facing precarious conditions to make ends meet. We are hand in hand with people who produce democratic art, those who value diversity and fight against racism. We stand with people who support the LGBTQIA+ agenda, Indigenous peoples, and riverside dwellers. We are on the side of people who tirelessly defend democracy, which has been so attacked in recent years.
Therefore, we will be ready to carry out our coverage on such an important day. You can follow us accessing our website, social media accounts, special broadcast on Rádio Brasil de Fato (10 am-10 pm), and our streaming directly from BdF studios – Brasil de Fato channel and TVT. Lots of analysis, information, and news from Brazil and the world from a popular point of view. Long live democracy!
Nina Fideles is director of journalism at Brasil de Fato
Edited by: Flávia Chacon e Glauco Faria
