Project by ANDI – Communications and Rights Sponsored by CLUA – Climate and Land Use Alliance

Journalists write stories which are usually the narrative of past events. However, the world challenges we face nowadays invite the media to look into present political decisions as they were telling the history of the future... The equation of sustainable development has a key generation effect: it defines it is defined by the commitment to ensure quality of life at present and also for those who will inhabit the planet Earth after us.

How did the press report the debates about the Forest Code in the Congress Lower House? An analysis of 973 texts from 17 newspapers from all regions of Brazil. NEWSGATHERING DIVERSE APPROACHES NEWS OUTLLETS SOURCES DEPTH

UNBALANCED DISTRIBUTION COVERAGE 40% of the material published in 5 news outlets

NATIONAL DAILIES STAND OUT 12 regional news outlets  Correio Braziliense  Folha de S.Paulo  O Estado de S. Paulo  O Globo  Valor Econômico 5 national dailies  Correio do Estado (MS)  Gazeta do Povo (PR)  Zero Hora (RS)  Estado de Minas (MG)  Diário de Pernambuco (PE)  Diário de Cuiabá (MT)  O Povo (CE)  O Rio Branco (AC)  A Crítica (AM)  Diário de Natal (RN)  A Gazeta (ES)  O Liberal (PA)

THREE DEFINING MOMENTS TWO CAMPS

Defining Moments Two camps  Political Environment  Environmental Policy Pre-Vote Stage Voting StagePost-Vote Stage THREE DEFINING MOMENTS TWO CAMPS

THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT SET THE TONE OF THE COVERAGE

58,6% of the stories provided context to the debate about the Forest Code; 10,8% of stories compared the current Forest Code with changes proposed in the Bill for a new Code; In-depth stories represented 13,1% of the total.

14,2% of texts presented evaluations (98% of those are opinion pieces – columns, articles, Op-Eds, interviews); 24 Op-Eds – 1 in every 3 days on average; On the other hand, only 2,8% of texts mentioned the obstacles for the implementation of the Forest Code.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY EVALUATING THE BILL 59,2% of news stories brought positions or presented arguments about the contents of the new Forest Code Bill: Of those, 55, 8% presented unfavorable positions:  24,7% were totally against it;  31,1% were partially against it. While 31,6% had favorable positions:  12,4% were totally favourable;  19,2% were partially favorable.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY EVALUATING THE BILL 9,5% of all texts discussed the potential negative effects of the changes proposed in the Code. 0,8% discussed the potential positive consequences. Representatives of farmers, agribusiness and environmentalists had their opinions quoted in some 20% of the news stories:  In 51,6% of the mentions, farmers’ representatives were in favor of the Bill;  In 76,6% of mentions, environmentalists were against the Bill.

 80,9% of stories quoted at least one source.  52,4% had more than one source.  From those, 45% quoted antagonistic opinions.

*Multiple variable marker; total can surpass 100% WHO TALKED SOURCES OF INFORMATION LISTENED TO*

WHO TALKED

GOVERNMENT WHO TALKED

CIVIL SOCIETY WHO TALKED

Position of the scientific community concerning the Forestry Code Bill

 Only 8,2% of the stories quote scientific research;  Only 11,2% of the stories quote the scientific community.