Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

74 MEDIA POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION
and led to further public distrust of rapid privatization schemes imposed
by the state (Hughes 2002). With a much broader base of political support,
President Cardoso introduced a constitutional amendment allowing
private investment in the telecommunications sector without ending
Telebrás’s public monopoly in 1995. In the same year, the government
reversed the cross-subsidy system of telecommunications regulation and
introduced incentives for competition between different subsidiaries of
Telebrás. One commentator noted that ‘at one blow, the Brazilian government
increased the residential subscription by a factor of five, and the
cost of local calls by 80 per cent’ (Pinheiro 2003: 3). Brazil was a signatory
of the WTO’s ABT and in 1997 the government passed the General
Telecommunications Act, which opened the door for the restructuring
of Telebrás into twelve regional companies, as well as into local, cellular
and long-distance companies. Privatization was introduced in 1998,
and was met with opposition from political parties, unions and other
social movements whose case was reinforced by a major corruption scandal
that erupted over procedures having to do with the sale of regional
licences.
The Cardoso government was able to argue that it was committed to
‘universalization’ as it laid out a range of obligations that private firms had
to meet in order to gain access to the Brazilian market. In the same year,
the government created the National Agency of Telecommunications
(Anatel), insisting that Brazil was taking a more cautious and moderate
road to privatization, balancing concerns of universal access and competition
with privatization strategies (Hughes 2002). Private investment
has targeted niche consumers and high-end business users in Brazil’s notoriously
unequal economy, and costs for basic and local services have increased
substantially. The unprecedented electoral victory of the Workers
Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores [PT]) in 2002 generated panic amongst
private foreign investors about the future of Brazil’s commitment to neoliberal
reforms. The outcome in terms of policy issues related to access
to telecommunications and ICTs is complex. In the international arena,
the Lula administration has played a pivotal role in mounting a challenge
against the symbolic dominance of Northern institutional players
through the endorsement of the World Social Forum (WSF), as well
as through its leadership in South–South alliances in global trade talks,
especially in the area of intellectual property rights. Domestically, a series
of corruption scandals coupled with a visible retreat from its initial
economic agenda in order to appease fears about investor confidence has
seriously weakened the party’s credibility to meet the needs of its own
political base of unionized workers, landless farmers, the urban lowermiddle
classes and the urban poor (Baiocchi 2005). Despite these very