Master of Arts in communication and culture
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Few people know what an ombudsman is, but various of the biggest newspapers in the world have the column, as Le Monde (France); El Pa¡s (Spain); Washington Post, Boston Globe e Philadelphia Inquirer (USA); The London Free Press, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazete, Toronto Star e Halifax Cronicle-Herald (Canada) for instance; and even the Russian newspapers Izvestiya, known as an official organ of the communist party of the extinguished USSR. About half of the Japanese newspapers have an ombudsman, among which the one with the biggest circulation in the world: the Yomiuri Shimbum (10 million copies a day).
In Brazil, it is difficult to know how many newspapers have an ombudsman. In 1995, at least eight newspapers had one: Folha de S. Paulo, Folha da Tarde (SP), O Dia (RJ), AN Capital (SC), O Povo (CE), Correio da Para¡ba (PB), Di rio do Povo (Campinas- SP) e Rumos (CE), the lather a monthly publication.
In spite of that, at least two of these a newspapers put an end to the function: Folha da Tarde (in 1996) and AN Capital (in August 1997, not waiting even for the end of the commission of the ombudsman). The only Brazilian publications affiliated to the ONO(Organization of News Ombudsmen) and to the ABO (Associa‡ao Brasileira de Ouvidores) are Folha de S. Paulo e O Povo (CE).
We have also two Brazilian Broadcasting systems with ombudsmen: Radio Bandeirantes( SP) and O Povo/CBN-OM (CE). Up to the moment, in the USA you have one ombudsman in a TV station, Paul Giacobbe, in Warwick, CT (Connecticut); and in Canada, two: both in the CBC Network, one for the French and another for the English transmissions.
Proportionally, there are few means of communication with ombudsmen (except in Japan). This brings a question about the reason for the majority of the media being afraid of implementing the function.
History
The ombudsman appears officially in 1809, in Sweden, with the status of minister and the function of controlling the public power and listening to the appeals of the citizens against government organs. Later, the ombudsmen were adopted in other countries, mainly the Scandinavians ombudsmen were created against ethnical discriminations, they have the Parliament Ombudsmen, that of the consumers, etc.
Before the Swedish experience (in the XIX century), there had been “listeners”. We know that in ancient Rome the Tribune of the Pleb listened to the complaints of the citizens. In Colonial Brazil, the bishops had the function of “Listeners of the Crown”, which gave birth to the popular expression (in Brazil): “Complain to the bishop”.
The first press ombudsman appears in the U.S.A. in july 1967, with the function of listening to the complaints of the readers of the Louisville Courier Journal and of the Louisville Times, both in Louisville, Kentucky. In spite of that, the first ombudsman with a public column has been Richard Harwood, in the Washington Post, in 1970.
The American pioneerism in the creation of the press ombudsman in questioned by the Japanese. The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbum guarantees that, in 1938, it had already a professional with a function similar to that of the ombudsman.
In Brazil, the first newspaper to adopt ombudsmen has been the “Folha de S. Paulo”, that in 1989, chose Caio T£lio Costa to occupy the function. Other newspapers could have tried to create it first. According to Caio T£lio, the first publication that tried to implement the function was the Jornal do Brasil, in 1982, and didn’t succeed because various journalists invited to occupy the function refused it.
According to him, the main competition of the Folha, O Estado de S. Paulo tried to create the function. Directors and journalists of the Estado discussed the subject with specialists of the Navarra University and everything was being prepared for the implementation of the project, until finally in the middle of 1990, this project was abandoned since the Folha de S. Paulo had created the office first.
Folha’s experience was pioneer not only in relation to the press, but also in relation to any kind of institution. After the attitude of the Folha, many enterprises, public organs and even county administrations adopted ombudsmen.
The word “ombudsman”
The word “ombudsman” is of Swedish origin. It is the fusion of the word ombud (representative) and man (man). Caio T£lio translated the word as “the one that represents”, but its real meaning is “person with a delegation”. When the function was created in 1809, it received the denomination of “Justitieombudsman” (justice ombudsman).
By the word’s origin, it would be wrong to form its plural as “ombudsmen”, since it isn’t an English word. The correct form would be “ombudsm„n”. Its feminine form would be “ombudskvinna”, that would be “ombudskvinnor” in the plural form. “Ombudsmen” is used as it is the case in this article. The Folha de S. Paulo makes use of the word “ombudsman” when the function is occupied by a woman.
The work
Most of the times, the ombudsman has three functions: listening to the readers, writing a daily a bulletin criticizing the paper (which circulates internally among the journalists) and preparing a weekly column to be published. Some ombudsmen don’t have columns for public criticism, as is the case of “O Dia”. In these cases, the work of the ombudsman is very similar to that of a complaints department and loses its function, which is to stimulate the reflection main and the debate about the process of journalistic production.
To make their work, the ombudsmen need independence in relation to the direction of the paper. Because of that, some guaranties are given to this professional, as stability during his mandate (in the Folha it is of a year, which can be prorogated for two years more).
The ombudsman’s room far from the editorship, to avoid his involvement with the orientation of the publication. In the case of the Folha, the ombudsman has an office in a building near by.
The columns
The columns of ombudsman have characteristics that make them different from other sections of the paper. As to their contents, questions are presented that will help the reader very much in his critical point of view in relation to the means of communication. Many columns of ombudsmen in the Folha de S. Paulo have been read, and we verified that they bring basically:
- Comparisons among newspapers (mainly between O Estado de S. Paulo and the Folha);
- Critics concerning the covering of certain subjects, news, comments, headlines, photos, etc;
- Discussions about ethic questions of the paper and those of the media;
- Self-criticism of the ombudsman;
- Consideration of themes connected to journalism;
- Presentation of reader’s demands (some times reproducing the letters);
- Critics to problems of the paper’s circulation, care of the subscribers, among other operational questions of the paper;
- Disputes of the ombudsman with other press professionals;
- Praises to the Folha and to other media vehicles;
- Presentation of the news process, showing how they are obtained and edited;
- Presentation of conflicts among Folha’s professionals and professionals of other media vehicles;
- Report of the attendance to the readers;
- Discussion about grammatical questions, mainly these concerning orthography;
- Interviews with important professionals of the Folha.
The majority of these items refer the ombudsman’s to work as a critic, which corroborates the importance given by the ombudsman to his task of these aspects, the one that appears in the columns is number two (“critics concerning the covering of certain subjects”).
These contents show the importance of the ombudsman’s work. For instance, through item tem (presentation of the news process) the reader may understand that journalistic work isn’t totally objective.
In a column published in July 10, 1990, the Folha’s ombudsman mentioned a mistake concerning information vehiculated by the paper, that could be related to the process of inquiry of the fact. According to the ombudsman, the ex-president Collor talked by radio to the navigator Almir Klink, who was in Antartica. But owing to a technical problem, the navigator had no means of answering. Later, the press department of the Presidency distributed the conversation(inexistent), having transcripted the conversation between the president and the navigator. All newspapers, except O Estado de S. Paulo believed(and published) this lie.
Some months before, in January 28, 1990, the ombudsman had talked about a release by the press of a meeting between President Collor and the economist M rio Henrique Simonsen that never took place. In both these cases, the ombudsman showed how easy it is to create news, and that the reader must question the veracity of the media.
Language
The text of the ombudsman has characteristics that differ from other texts in the newspaper. The journalistic style to which the columns of the ombudsman better adapt themselves is the commentary (they are signed, give emphasis to opinion, have definite periodicity, they analyze up to date subjects). But in spite of that, various peculiarities turn them different from other columns of the paper.
One aspect that is quite peculiar in the ombudsman speech is the constant use of the first and second person’s singular. In the paper, even the opinative texts are almost always written in the third person sing. 50 columns published in the Folha de S. Paulo have been analyzed in relation to their linguistic characteristics.
The columns of ombudsmen have a touch of humor and have a dynamic text (with the constant use of short sentences, puns, etc). In the column of December 12, 1996, for instance, the ombudsman Marcelo Leite talks about the postponement of the transmission of his function to other professional in a quite ironical way: “Freedom has been postponed for three or four weeks”.
The columns of ombudsmen have a touch of humor and have a dynamic text (with the constant use of short sentences, puns, etc). In the column of December 12, 1996, for instance, the ombudsman Marcelo Leite talks about the postponement of the transmission of his function to other professional in a quite ironical way: “Freedom has been postponed for three or four weeks”.
But the main characteristic of the ombudsman’s speech is the use of various strategies in the attempt to stimulate the dialogue with the readers. Since he is “the representative of the reader” this couldn’t happen otherwise.
Then, to create a near relationship with the public, the ombudsman calls the reader to a direct dialogue. He uses the word reader with a function similar to that of a vocative. “I call the reader’s attention to…” (FSP, 3-3-1996). Other times the reader is “the main actor”. “The reader has been carried by TV from a world of moral deformity to the immensity of the cosmos” (FSP, 12-8-1996).
Trying to create a relationship of identification with the public, the ombudsman sometimes presents himself as a reader. “As a reader I want to know who is interested in…” (FSP, 5-26-1996).
It’s interesting to notice that he prefers the use of the singular (reader) when referring to the public. Using the singular, it is as if he were speaking to each of us in particular.
Besides the word reader, the ombudsman sometimes made use of the second person singular, a stronger means to create a relation of intimacy with the public. Trying to create an informal relationship with the public, he uses the first person. “When I wrote the column…” (FSP, 12-29-1996). In some situations, the ombudsman presents himself humbly, making clear that his opinions are not unquestionable. “I am not competent and don’t have the courage to interpret…” (FSP, 12-29-1996). This posture makes the readers feel at easy to get touch with him.
With the journalists the ombudsman also has a dialogue. But, different from that which takes place with the readers, the interlocutor with press professionals is conflictive. The “reader’s representative describes the journalists as professionals without ethics and incompetents. In the columns analyzed they are called “na‹ve”, “ignoramus”, “incompetents”, “boring”, “morbid”, “complicated”, caused of not knowing the grammatical rules, “opportunists” and “of lack of respect”, among other things.
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