It is normal to receive complaints from readers against what they call negativity or pessimism in the press, especially at Folha. For many, it is as if newspapers were only interested in bad news. They complain that they also want to see the good news.
Newspapers, in fact reported, some good news last Wednesday, giving it big play. The problem was that in reality, the news wasnt so good.
Im referring to the announcement by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) about the discovery of an oil field by Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the northeastern state of Sergipe that would be the biggest found by the state-run company since 1996.
According to the report given to the press that day, this field is said to hold estimated reserves of 1.9 billion barrels, which signifies 14.50f the nations total petroleum reserves. Furthermore, the oil there was described as extremely high quality, meeting the standards of the best in the Middle East.
One more announcement came at a time when the world is preparing for a war by the United States against Iraq in which on an obviously smaller scale the ANP itself is preparing a new round of auctions in August for companies interested in exploring for petroleum in the country.
It was no coincidence that Petrobras stock rallied on Tuesday, closing 4 0gher and reaching as much as 6.5 0gher.
Decoy
As the graphic to the side shows, newspapers reported the discovery in a heterogeneous way. O Estado de So Paulo gave the most space, followed by the Rio de Janeiro daily O Globo and Folha. The Rio daily Jornal do Brasil did not report it on the front page, but put the news instead on an inside page. The financial daily Gazeta Mercantil put it discreetly on the front page and gave it a small story on the inside. Valor Econmico gave it just a small note.
While the majority made a lot of noise some, such as Folha, in later editions had the proviso the same day that Petrobras did not confirm all the ANP data. In the end, as was clarified later, the discovery was nothing of the sort. This can be correctly described as a decoy.
Petrobras put out a news release which said that it wasnt even talking about the reserves. In the best hypothesis and after studies still being conducted, the reserves totaled 370 million barrels, which signifies a medium-size field but not a giant one as announced. It blamed the ANP for the confusion and for jumping the gun.
The agency responded that it did not use the word reserves in the press release about the topic, but only mentioned a preliminary estimate of the potential volume of the discovery. In its opinion, there was a misunderstanding.
It even reasoned that the ANP has the right (or obligation) to report fully the discovery of a well before Petrobras.
Faults
Independent of the dispute between Petrobras and the ANP (about which I will speak further later on) at least two journalistic faults seem clear behind the confusion of the misunderstanding and the big news that wasnt.
In the media it uses the word reserves in a mistaken way, the probable result of inexperience and technical misunderstanding. One thing, according to what I believe also was learned in the week, is the potential total volume of estimated oil in a well; another thing is when this oil is capable of being extracted (reserves).
Besides this, the anxiety of obtaining some favorable news at an adverse point such as the current one ended up being reported with improper boasting and with the correct journalistic doubt, the existence of something that, in reality, does not exist.
Taking one step back, according to one of the basic rules of journalism, also is relevant to reporting news coming from the supposedly neutral institution.
*
The federal government used the episode (which indicates a possible blunder by the ANP) to heat up the debate about the role of regulatory agencies, created during the administration of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (who left office Jan. 1) resulting from privatizations since 1995 to administer autonomous sectors such as electric energy (Aneel), telecommunications (Anatel) or complementary health (ANS).
The new presidential administration wants changes in this area, and an inter-ministerial meeting about the topic, before the agenda for last week, is set for the coming days.
Last Wednesday, the media reported a survey by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection about the performance of seven public agencies and offices (average grade 4.2).
Columnists showed alternatives. There were editorials. In this recent heating up of the dispute, however, the main newspapers did not publish (until when I write this column early Saturday morning) clear and instructive material about how the agencies function, the ideas in the debate about their destiny and what the practice and adoption of one or the other implies.
Thats where the error lies. Then, besides the positioning of ideological or philosophical principle, it is the duty of the newspaper to give readers (consumers of public services that the agencies manage) the chance to not be dumbfounded by a confrontation whose solution directly affects his life and wallet.
