The regulation of Article 221 - III of the Federal Constitution to build a public and counter-hegemonic sphere

Abstract

Article 221, item III, of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil stipulates that television and radio programming and production must be regionalized, meeting cultural, artistic, and journalistic criteria. However, despite this being the desire of the original constituent legislator, the aforementioned provision has not yet been regulated, which keeps it in the status of a constitutional norm of limited effectiveness, that is, without applicability, until an ordinary law comes into force to give it practical life. Therefore, the objective of this article is to analyze the reasons that lead to the inertia of the Legislative Branch, which, after two decades, has still not voted on Bill 256/91, which proposes precisely to regulate the article under study. Such inertia serves the interests of hegemonic sectors of society that see television as a useful tool for maintaining these interests intact, whether economic, political, or even religious, always to the detriment of satisfying the real needs of members of the public sphere of society as a whole.