Sergio Amadeu da Silveira - Cidadania e Redes Digitais

eng
c i t i z e n s h i p a n d d i g i t a l n e t w o r k s
Thus, a materialistic, social and non individualistic conception of Human Rights necessarily
implies having what Primo Levi defined as the “Shame of being a man 7 :” the starting
point is the outrage and resistance in face of what men do! The outrage, the shame of
being a man is the moment that creates, at the same time, the rights and the men.
This is not about “pleading” natural, individual rights that would result from
a transcendental essence of “man”. The struggle against inequality and in favor of
freedom is what transforms men and makes up the rights. What matters are the
men who resist and thus create and materially produce their rights and, at that exact
measure, build up a new world and a new man.
The new centrality of communication
In the field of communication, the ambiguity of the neoliberal discourse on Human
Rights appears clearly: the formal dimension of the so called freedom of press
serves, in fact, to defend a “big media” structure (television, radio and written press)
that combines economic concentration and a total lack of pluralism.
In Brazil, we have an alarming diagnosis: not only do the communication groups
develop a single editorial view — which systematically attacks Lula’s government
and its reforms — as there is virtually no nuance between the various groups. At the
same time, any attempt to discuss the democratization of radio and television concessions
or the concentration of media property and that of state and private advertisement
resources, or to implement new regulatory frameworks as happened with
Ancinav 8 , is labeled as a threat to a Human Right that is the “freedom of opinion.”
In reality, behind the anti-democratic stance of the oligopolistic media there is
a great weakness which is determined by the exhaustion of the model on which it
has built its power and fortune. The communication model that is in crisis is fundamentally
that of industrial type based, on one side, on the hierarchical relationship
“sender — receiver” and, on the other, on the direct or indirect (and in any way
7. É Isto um Homem?, Rocco, Rio de Janeiro, 1988 (“Is This a Man?”, from the original Se questo
é un uomo, Einaudi, Torino, 1958). Deleuze and Guattari refer precisely to Primo Levi to build up
their critique.
8. Translator’s note: a suspended 2004 project for the creation of a Brazilian movie industry regulatory
agency.
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