Changes in Brazil's election law, voted in by the conservative majority in the Congress, have put new restrictions on opposition parties' rights to broadcast and disseminate their views.
The original law, enacted before the 1989 election, gave all electoral parties the right to have daily access, without charge, to national television and radio networks to broadcast campaign messages prior to the October 3 elections. The Workers Party (PT) and its allied parties get four minutes twice a day, once in the morning and once during prime time.
Under the revised law, political messages can feature only "talking heads". In other words, the most boring television imaginable.
During the last election, the PT used its air time with such verve, creativity, and imagination that its spots quickly became the most popular shows on the air. With talent donated by artists, technicians, comedians, and musicians, PT campaign ads used animation, film and video montage, comedy skits and fresh pop music to get the message across. People from social movements were interviewed, the lies of the established parties were exposed, and the corruption of the government was documented by the use of vivid on-screen graphics.
Brazil's mass media are owned and dominated by supporters of the old, corrupt parties. The few minutes of air time given to the PT were the only counterbalance to the media's right-wing bias.
The PT has taken its case to Brazil's Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), arguing that the changes in the election law are unconstitutional and violate the right of free speech.
As support for the PT increases, rightists are stepping up attacks against the PT. Two right-wing candidates have presented a formal charge against Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva's presidential campaign. They allege that Lula used sound trucks provided by the Metalworkers Union at campaign rallies in Sao Paulo on May 23 and 24. If the TSE rules against Lula, he could be eliminated from the race.
However, TSE vice president Carlos Velloso charged that, of all the parties, only the PT has complied with the legal requirement to cover campaign expenses with resources obtained from the sale of numbered electoral bonds.
The Brazilian intelligence service has meanwhile accused the Landless Peasants' Movement (MST), a peasant organisation whose members would support Lula, of smuggling arms and running guerilla training camps in north-eastern Brazil.
The MST was set up in 1985 to achieve land reform by occupying idle estates. Journalists investigating the allegation that the MST had set up a guerilla training camp in Ipojuca, in Pernambuco state, found instead a peaceful settlement of 250 families.
[Based on reports from the Brazil Election Information Committee and the Nicaragua Network (both in New York).]