Debaters discussed on Wednesday (07) the legality of the participation of foreign capital in Brazilian Internet portals in a public hearing held in the Commission of Science and Technology, Communication and Computing.
Representatives from broadcast TV stations and newspapers said that the 30% restriction to foreign capital provided in the Constitution should also stand for Internet portals. The only representative of the portal attending the debate highlighted that this limit is restrict to radio, broadcast TV and Jourlanism companies.

The Constitution establishes a 30% limit to foreign capital in radio and audiovisual broadcasting for Journalism companies. For the Operation superintendent of Rede TV, Kalled Adib Antonio, this limit has to be extended to all means of communication, including Internet and cable TV.

“Soon the largest portal of the Country is going to have a greater profit than the largest TV station", said Antonio, who represented the Brazilian Broadcaster Association (Abra)in the hearing.

The Lawyer Gustavo Binenbojn, consultant from the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Stations (Abert) highlighted that the principle should be complied by all journalism companies, regardless of the mean used to produce and release news. “When Constitution deals with journalism companies, it makes no exception to means – this means that the principle also stands for the Internet”, he said.

According to the Executive-Director of National Association of Journals (ANJ), Ricardo Pedreira, there are currently many examples of non-compliance with the constitutional principle, as many portals release news controlled by foreign capital. He informed that the Attorneys General Office recently examined the representation of ANJ and Abert against Portal Terra and determined it to be investigated.

The associations state that the site produces journalistic content, despite being controlled by the Spanish telecommunications group Telefónica.

Portal Terra

In the opinion of the Lawyer Floriano Peixoto, representative of Portal Terra, the constitutional principle is not applied to Internet portals because they are not broadcasting neither journalistic companies.

According to him, it is unconstitutional to apply capital restriction to other means of communication. “The application of the principle in Internet portals would require a change in the Constitution”, he said.

In addition, the Lawyer considers it innocuous to establish a foreign capital limit to the Brazilian portal, because, if this happens, the portal is only going to migrate to another country and send content from there.

Peixoto emphasized that only China, Iran and Vietnam restrict foreign capital do Internet websites. “Russia tried to discuss the restriction, but noticed that it is counter-productive and innocuous”, he said.

To the Lawyer, if national broadcasting and journalistic companies consider unfair the competition with Internet companies with more than 30% foreign capital, the change in the Constitution to revise the restriction of capital for those companies should be revised.

Translation-SP Language/Grupo Solucion –Thiago de Lira Capatti