Veja (magazine)
Veja (literally “See” in Spanish) is a weekly Brazilian magazine of investigative journalism edited in the city of São Paulo and with national circulation, published by the Editor April. It was founded on September 11, 1968 and created by journalists Victor Civita (of Italian origin) and Mino Carta, inspired by the American Time. With a circulation of approximately 1.2 million copies, it is the magazine with the largest circulation in Brazil. His political orientation oscillates between liberal right and conservatism.
The magazine deals with everyday issues of Brazilian society and the world, such as politics, economy, culture and behavior in general; technology, ecology and religion are also usually addressed. It also has fixed sections on cinematography, literature and music, among other varieties. Its texts are mostly prepared by journalists, but not all of its sections are signed. The magazine occasionally publishes editions dealing with regional issues Veja BH, Veja São Paulo or Veja Rio. The publication is distributed to its 920,000 subscribers on Saturdays and hits newsstands and magazines on Sundays; However, its weekly copies have a date stamped corresponding to a Wednesday (quarta-feira).
Some historical facts
In December 1975, the magazine published a report stating that scientists had managed to obtain unpublished slides of Nessie, the alleged Loch Ness monster, clear enough to identify a creature such as a plesiosaur, a herbivorous dinosaur that became extinct about 70 years ago. millions of years. Veja dedicated six notes to the supposed monster, citing supposed scientific "proof" of its existence in five of them.
In April 1983, the magazine published, in its respective science section, a report stating that Western German researchers from the city of Hamburg had created an unprecedented process that allowed the fusion of animal and plant cells, culminating in a hybrid product of beef and tomato, capable of growing on trees and nicknamed boimate. The report was based on humorous information from the British newspaper New Science, without realizing that it was a joke on April 1 (April Fool's Day). On June 26 of that same year, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo denied such extravagant claims and the magazine itself would publish a note about it on July 6, denying the original material, correcting the mistake and apologizing to readers.
On April 25, 1992, the magazine published an exclusive interview with Pedro Collor de Mello, brother of the then president Fernando Collor de Mello), in which the interviewee denounced irregularities in the diversion of public money in an alleged complicity with Paulo César Farias. That interview triggered a series of new complaints and investigations, culminating in an impeachment trial and the subsequent resignation of the president.
On May 14, 2005, another report from the magazine played a relevant role in the outbreak of another major political crisis, when it released the transcript of a video in which people were filmed in flagrante delicto (in fraganti), with a hidden camera, to the then postal official Maurício Marinho explaining to two businessmen how a “tip” payment scheme worked to commit fraud in tenders. Such a scheme would end up involving Congressman Roberto Jefferson, and his complaint served as a trigger for the so-called mensalão scandal to break out.
In 2009, Veja magazine released access to the information available in its editions published between 1997 and 2007, now digitized, in a project carried out in the company of Bradesco.
Criticism and controversies
The magazine is often the target of criticism regarding its bias, among which are journalists Luis Nassif in the special section of his blog. and Mino Carta himself, in various editions of his magazine Carta Capital Both filed lawsuits against the magazine and its columnists (especially against Diogo Mainardi) in relation to the accusations made by both parties.
In August 2010, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) granted the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) the right of reply in the magazine Veja. The TSE's decision is due to the publication of the report Indio acertou no Alvo ("Indio hit the target"), on the statements of deputy Índio da Costa about alleged connections between the PT, the Forces Revolutionary Armies of Colombia (FARC) and drug trafficking. Regarding the granting of the right of reply or response, Minister Hamilton Carvalhido stated that "there is a tenuous line that separates the legitimate right to exercise freedom of the press and its abuses." However, the measure was criticized by various jurists, such as Miguel Reale Júnior, Ives Gandra Martins, Paulo Brossard, Oscar Vilhena Vieira and Carlos Velloso.
For Reale Júnior “telling the truth does not constitute a crime if the intention is not to offend but to narrate a fact – even if that fact is detrimental to the social prestige of an entity, such as a party. political", while for Ives Gandra the magazine would have expressed its opinion, "its right" and would have carried out "the analysis of a fact, which is legitimate within the principles of freedom of the press." For Brossard “the published facts are of notoriety [...] public and serious facts” that would have been “disclosed ad nauseam” (reported far too much).
For her part, Vilhena Vieira stated that the case “confirms a trend toward restriction of the right to information and freedom of expression in Brazil,” and that Veja “had the right to publish the report.” For the three ministers of the court who opposed the right of reply, the matter in question would be “essentially journalistic”, and the granting of the right of response would be in conflict with freedom of the press and expression. For four of the seven judges or ministers of the STF, the magazine did not limit itself to reporting the facts, but rather reinforced the argument of the deputy, judged offensive to the party by the TSE itself. For Arnaldo Versiani, the report, more than just reporting the facts, also made value judgments. Ricardo Lewandowski, president of the court, stated that in the report “the magazine intersperses (entremeia) facts with insinuations.”