History and press in the Brazil redemocratization process: conflicts and disputes in journalistic coverage on the 1979 Amnesty

Abstract

This research's proposal consists in developing a detailed and careful analysis of the journalistic coverage of the Amnesty's Law promulgated in August 28th, 1979. Using an already done extensive survey of what was published in six major circulation of the country's newspapers (Correio Braziliense, Folha de S. Paulo, Jornal do Brasil, O Estado de S. Paulo, O Globo and Tribuna da Imprensa), between August 15th and September 15th of that year, we intend to investigate the way the disputes around the Amnesty terms were approached and the process' conflicts. Apart from Amnesty's project forwarded to the National Congress by Figueiredo's government (1979-1985), different society segments got envolved on debates about the theme, adopting varied pressure strategies such as, for example, popular manifestations and hunger strike. This shows that the Amnesty was a result of occurred negotiations and conflicts inside and out of the parliamentary scope, and not from an unilateral initiative of the last dictatorship government - period which had started in 1964. Collating the press coverage, we intend to scale the newspapers' role of these process - newspapers that also performed historical conducts defending ideological principles and interests that conformed the Amnesty's coverage and edge. Finally, it is worth highlighting the importance of this research that approaches a fundamental episode of recent political history's country, which had produced the basis of the silencing and oblivion about the crimes committed by the State during the civil military dictatorship in effect between 1964 and 1985.