TV Rating System Building Citizenship on the Small Screen ANDI Ministério da Justiça – Secretaria Nacional de Justiça – Departamento de Justiça, Classificação, Títulos e Qualificação TV Rating System Building citizenship on the small screen Prepared by in partnership with STAFF ANDI MINISTRY OF JUSTICE News Agency for Children’s Rights President of the Republic Chairman of the Board of Directors Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Oscar Vilhena Vieira Minister of State of Justice Executive Secretary Márcio Thomaz Bastos Veet Vivarta National Secretary of Justice Deputy Executive Secretary Cláudia Maria de Freitas Chagas Ely Harasawa Director of the Department of Justice, Ratings, Research and Statistics Coordinator Titles, and Qualification Guilherme Canela José Eduardo Elias Romão Editorial Coordinator Deputy Director Adriano Guerra Tarcízio Ildefonso Costa Júnior SDS - Ed. Boulevard Center, Bloco A sala 101 Coordinator 70.391-900 – Brasilia-DF Maria Celva Bispo Reis Telephone: (61) 2102-6508 | Fax: (61) 2102-6550 E-mail: [email protected] Technical Consultants Site: www.andi.org.br Anderson de Oliveira Alarcon Juliana Cézar Nunes Tatiana Barbosa Sócrates Card catalogue (cataloguing in publication) Esplanada dos Ministérios, Bloco T, C614 TV Rating System: building citizenship on the small Anexo II, sala 319 screen / [editorial supervisor Veet Vivarta. text coordinator 70.064-901 – Brasilia-DF Guilherme Canela]--- Brasilia: ANDI; National Secretariat of Justice, 2006. Telephone: (61) 3429-3660 256 p. E-mail: [email protected] Site: www.mj.gov.br/classificacao Text available in three languages: Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Published in partnership with: Avina Foundation / Save the Children Sweden. ISBN 978-85-99118-13-9 1. Media. 2. Regulations. 3.Human Rights. 4. TV Ratings. I. Canela, Guilherme (Coordinator) II. News Agency for Children’s Rights. CDU: 316.774 Contents» Preface Introduction: A brief overview of the Brazilian setting Part One 1 TV Rating System in Brazil - 21 » 2 Regulation versus the free market - 46 3 TV Rating System and the freedom of expression - 67 4 The relationship between child, the adolescents, and the media - 84 5 Building on international experiences - 114 6 Challenges in defining a new model - 158 Part Two TV Rating System: the protection of Human Rights and an educational dialogue with society - 170 Draft TV Rating System Form - 194 Manual and Source Codes - 215 Lists of countries and languages - 228 Appendix 1: List of institutions - 231 Appendix 2: Brazilian Broadcasting Code of Ethics - 239 Bibliography Technical staff The New TV Rating System as a republican institution he purpose of this publication is to examine the Brazilian TV Ratings advisory process T from a range of theoretical perspectives, and to present the new TV Rating System, the out- come of a wide range of discussions held over the past four years by the Ministry of Justice, through its National Secretariat of Justice, with State agencies, media firms, and nongovernmental organizations. The book intends to demonstrate that the new TV Rating System serves as an instrument to con- solidate the Democratic State Based on the Rule of Law. First, by definitively breaking away from the remaining vestiges of pernicious censorship still embedded in the Brazilian State apparatus. Second- ly, through the system’s inclusion in the set of legal mechanisms for the promotion of human rights – among them, the right to freedom of expression. It can therefore be stated categorically that the new TV Rating System does not institute self-regulation – much less censorship – by subterfuge. Nor, indeed, could it do so, since self-regulation and censorship correspond to “normative models” – the Liberal State and the Social State, respectively – both already definitively transcended. The Brazilian Federal Con- tration, stands as a genuine system for safeguarding stitution of 1988, which institutes the Democratic and protecting the fundamental rights of Brazilians, State Based on the Rule of Law (the regime now in ef- that is, as a truly republican institution. fect), specifically rejects self-regulation, mandating Finally, it is important to emphasize that the TV in its article 21 that the Union “classify, for purposes Rating System serves strictly as a guideline, since of indication,” while simultaneously prohibiting, it lacks the power to forbid the access of children above all under article 220, “any and all censorship and adolescents to any type of public entertain- of a political, ideological, and artistic nature.” ment. That authority rests with parents. It is up to This volume sets out the conceptual and norma- the State to ensure effective means for implement- tive fundaments of the new TV Rating System, which ing such control over the access to content, and to can be clearly understood as a legal constitutional provide objective information enabling parents to norm resulting from a balance between the right to exercise their freedom of choice. freedom of expression and the duty to ensure the This book, published through a rewarding full protection of children and adolescents. partnership among the Brazilian News Agency The initiative, undertaken in 2002 by then Minis- for Children’s Rights (Agência de Notícias dos ter of Justice José Gregori to link the TV Rating System Direitos da Infância – ANDI), Save the Children to the exercise of human rights, had the virtue of el- Sweden, the Avina Foundation, and the Brazilian evating the subject to an issue of overarching public in- Ministry of Justice, does more than simply record terest. With courage and boldness, Minister José Gre- the challenges and achievements of individuals gori undertook the task of developing a democratic TV and institutions committed to following our Fed- Rating System that today, after all the work carried out eral Constitution. This work narrates part of the during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s adminis- story of Brazil’s redemocratization. Márcio Thomaz Bastos Minister of State for Justice Federative Republic of Brazil Building citizenship on the TV screen n the first half of 2006, the Brazilian News pact of media content, the need for dialogue between Agency for Children’s Rights (Agência business and society, the importance of State regula- I de Notícias dos Direitos da Infância tion, the role of the different accountability systems – ANDI), through an agreement signed with for mass communications outlets, all have been the the Department of Justice, Ratings, Titles, and subject of intense and extensive reflection over the Qualification of the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, past decade in the international public sphere. prepared an extensive analysis on the various In view of this, the primary objective of the questions related to the TV ratings advisory proc- present publication poses a significant chal- ess for audiovisual content. lenge: to identify points of convergence among Published in printed form in three languages the specific areas of expertise on the subject, the (Portuguese, English, and Spanish) – to reflect disparate public and private concerns, and the the incorporation of Save the Children Sweden conflicting interests of the various actors. and the Avina Foundation to the initiative – the Numerous approaches could be chosen to study is intended to contribute to the public de- deepen a debate of this nature. That said, our bate in Brazil and other countries on this most efforts concentrate on one major, and highly important issue. complex, axis of interest: a TV Rating System for In the pages that follow, key aspects of the pub- audiovisual content designed to safeguard the lic policies governing the TV Rating System are rights of children and adolescents. examined. Additionally, the analysis looks at how Assigning ratings to programming offered the issue has been addressed in several countries. through different media consists in identifying the Lastly, we propose a redesigned Brazilian TV Rat- specific content that is deemed suitable and un- ings System based on the results and conclusions suitable for children and adolescents, depending drawn from the study. on their age and on their level of biopsychosocial The rights of children and adolescents, the im- formation. However, it is important to note that op- tions for establishing ratings are numerous – and The TV Rating System is a specific regulatory often conflicting. model whose efficiency will be increasingly en- We would therefore like to invite the relevant hanced as other parameters of the media regula- actors in this discussion – children, adolescents, tory framework are developed. families, educators, experts, the State, civil soci- The TV Rating System should not be interpret- ety, and business – to converge around a single ed as a form of censorship or as an inhibitor of line of analysis with a view to offering a consistent more progressive views concerning the concept and substantive (although not definitive or abso- of freedom of expression. lute) contribution to a debate that is of great im- We are aware that a full consensus is difficult to portance to contemporary societies. achieve on an issue in which different actors hold It is worth mentioning that we live in an historic clearly demarcated and, as so often the case in time when audiovisual content – particularly content democratic societies, divergent positions. How- offered over television, as well as other media – is not ever, considerable progress will be ensured if the only central to shaping who we are and will be, but conversation among the different actors is framed also to our understanding of ourselves, of others, and within the context of parameters prescribed spe- of the world around us. Therefore, our interest in the cifically in the Brazilian Constitution and, as well, development of that content is anything but trite. in the international agreements governing the is- With this in mind, the following chapters set sue. In other words, the idea is to promote a true forth a proposal for the formulation of a public pol- dialogue in place of what has too often sounded like icy founded on five central points: a disjointed cacophony of monologues.