November 4, 2004

BRASILIA, Brazil - A campaign against those who fund anti-ethical, offensive television programs will now include efforts to lobby Congress to approve a legal bill that will create the Ethical TV Code, a Television Program Monitoring Council and the National Ethics in Television Commission.

The bill is currently before the congressional Social Security and Family Commission. The initiative is being spearheaded by the congressional Human Rights and Minorities Commission, together with 60 groups from civil society.

As well as publishing the list of the 10 most immoral and damaging programs according to viewers, the campaign is now disseminating the names of individuals or businesses that sponsor and advertise in these programs.

"It is the advertisers that maintain these programs on television and the idea is to make this public so that people stop buying the products that are advertised on these programs," said campaign coordinator Congressman Orlando Fantazzini, of the Workers Party of Sao Paulo.

This year, the campaign received 500 complaints from viewers. The most highly criticized program, given its explicit sex scenes, the fact that it incites violence and is shown at an inappropriate time from May 7 to October 11 was a program hosted by Joao Kleber "Hot Afternoons," broadcast by Red TV.

All of the Brazilian television networks came under viewer fire. Among others there were complaints about three soap operas shown on Red Globo. The complaints referred to sex scenes and the fact that programs incite violence and mock people.

On October 17, National Day Against Immorality on TV, campaign organizers called on people not to turn on their televisions between 15:00 and 16:00. In Sao Paulo, television viewing declined 14 percent compared to the previous Sunday according to an Ibope survey. The campaign took place at a national level.

One of the objectives of the campaign is to demand respect for human rights in television program. The campaign "Who funds Immorality and Offends Citizens" began November 13, 2002 and has received more than 15,000 electronic messages including complaints and manifestations of support, said press advisor Janete Lemos.

Latin American Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC)