Bolsonaro’s extensive spending on public TV broadcasts

At the end of September, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro celebrated 1,000 days in office. While many stakeholders would argue that there is no reason for festivities — with his term as president marred by constant crisis, weak economic growth, and over 600,000 Covid-19 deaths — Mr. Bolsonaro used the anniversary to try and drum up some positive press, something severely lacking for the incumbent leader.

The president embarked on a national roadshow, showing up at official events and inaugurations of infrastructure projects and showing his face to many of the 57.7 million voters that elected him to the Planalto Palace three years ago. And all of these public engagements were broadcast live by the Brazilian Communication Company (EBC), a state-owned firm which provides broadcasting services to the government and administers federal public radio and TV stations.

To cover each presidential ceremony broadcast nationwide by the EBC, the government pays between BRL 7,461 (USD 1,349) and BRL 23,465 per hour. Indeed, this is only the cost for obtaining footage, with the government needing to fork out another BRL 1,600 per event for showing the program on the EBC’s TV Brasil station.

These amounts are made available to the public by way of a contract between the EBC and the government’s press secretary, signed by Communications Minister Fábio Faria.

In the first week of Jair Bolsonaro’s 1,000...