1st Bloggers Meeting kicks off with demands for broadband internet and for a regulatory framework for the mediaBesides the regional country music, one of the highlights of the opening was the lighting ceremony of Itaipu's Dam, followed by a show of fireworks. The bloggers attending the ceremony could post on the internet what was happening thanks to the free wireless connection provided. The meeting goes until Saturday and will be attended by representatives of 32 countries and 16 Brazilian States.
Marcel Gomes
Foz do Iguaçu - The 1st Bloggers World Meeting started on Thursday (27) evening in Foz do Iguaçu. Messages in favor of the democratization of communications, criticism to the mass media, calls for free broadband internet, and more public policies for the sector set the tone of the opening ceremony. The event took place in a beautiful lookout in front of Itaipu Dam, one of the event's sponsors.
Besides the regional country music, one of the highlights of the opening was the lighting ceremony of Itaipu's Dam, followed by a show of fireworks. The bloggers attending the ceremony could post on the internet what was happening thanks to the free wireless connection provided. The meeting goes until Saturday (29) and will be attended by representatives of 32 countries and 16 Brazilian States.
For Renato Rovai, journalist and president of the Brazilian Association of Enterprises and Entrepreneurs of Communications (Alterncon), the meeting is an opportunity to “broaden human possibilities inside new technologies”. “We are building the democratization of communications making use of what technology and human intelligence offer us. This is important because we are no longer dependent on concessions and companies”, he said.
Editor of Forum magazine, Rovai noted that bloggers need to make use of the “opportunity” at hand, due to the event taking place in Foz do Iguaçu, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet at at triple frontier. The fact that this event is happening here, helps us to bring Latin America close together, to build a space that allows us the creation of real political actions”, he affirmed.
Rosane Bertotti, national secretary of Communications of the Workers Cental union (CUT), noting that the meeting was taking place in Itaipu hydroelectric, a “State space”, defended that the State has the duty of “assuring that communications is a right and to make it available for society”. “This meeting also needs to be place to discuss public management and how it can guarantee the democratization of the right to communications.”, emphasized her, who also takes part in the National Forum for the Democratization of Communications (FNDC).
Altamiro Borges, from the Barão de Itacaré Alternative Media Studies' Institute, also talking about the role of the State in the sector, defended the struggle for a regulatory framework for communications in Brazil and for a broadband internet with quality. “These are the flags that unite us and help us to face media empires that distort behavior and manipulate information”, said the journalist. As a matter of fact, the motto of the meeting is “The role of the blogosphere in building of democracy”, from the fact that the new media have taken the majority of the audience of the traditional media.
Also honoring the opening of the event were the superintendent of Social Communications of Itaipu, Gilmar Piolla (“the new institutional mission of Itaipu has opened the company to the community and the debate over the new media is of paramount importance, because it has transformed the way humans interact with one another”), the secretary of Communications of Paraná's State, Marcelo Catani (“it will be an event with full assurance of plurality”), and the federal deputy and national secretary of Communication of PT (political party), André Vargas (“as a twitterer, I am a defender of the cause, and PT's Congress determined the creation of a regulatory framework for the media”).
In the next few days, new media personalities will be attending the event, such as Ignácio Ramonet, founder of Le Monde Diplomatique; Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for Wikileaks; Luis Nassif, journalist and blogger; Jesse Chacón, former Venezuelan Minister of Communications; and Pascual Serrano, founder of one of Europe's largest leftist sites, the Rebelion. Brazilian journalists and bloggers will act as mediators of the debate. The event is being promoted by the Barão de Itacare Alternative Media Studies' Institute, and by the Brazilian Association of Enterprises and Entrepreneurs of Communications (Altercon). It is sponsored by Itaipu hydroelectric and Sanepar.