Could CNN Brasil become Jair Bolsonaro’s Fox News?

In January of this year, it was announced that a Brazilian media group had purchased licensing rights from American news giant CNN to launch its own domestic platform—CNN Brasil—later in 2019. This initially came as a welcome sign for Brazil’s ailing journalism market, following in the footsteps of other international outlets—The Huffington Post, El País, The Intercept, among others—who opened their own Brazilian affiliates in recent years.

This optimism was soon overshadowed by confusion, as the public tried to work out exactly what the deal meant: would CNN Brasil be an extension of the North American news channel? Or, something entirely different? Indications show that the latter is the most likely outcome.

In recent decades, CNN owners WarnerMedia have made agreements with media groups from around the world to sell the rights to use the CNN brand for local channels, principally in Asia. For the most part, these CNN affiliates are independent organizations, following their own editorial lines and broadcasting only domestically produced content. A prime example of this is CNN Türk, the Istanbul-based media outlet which is overwhelmingly supportive of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—a drastic departure from the views of the mothership back in the U.S.

Therefore, as CNN Brasil will be an independent venture, purely using the CNN brand without any requirement to follow its editorial view, it is worthwhile paying attention to the people behind the NewCo. In...