When Míriam Leitão was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) at the end of April, the emotion was accompanied by reflection on what it meant for the representation of journalism in the institution.
“What touched me most about this victory was the number of journalists who told me that they felt represented at the Academy,” Leitão told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). “I didn’t put myself forward as a representative, but it’s nice to know that your friends think they are part of this collective. And it is this collective, in fact, right? It could have been someone else, another journalist, and I would have had the same feeling of being part of the victory.”
Leitão's 53-year career is marked by historical moments in the country. Arrested and tortured at the age of 19 during the military dictatorship, while pregnant, she covered redemocratization, the hyperinflation of the 1980s and 1990s, the impeachments of Fernando Collor de Mello and Dilma Rousseff. She also closely followed Brazil's main economic plans, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jair Bolsonaro government, the devastation of the Amazon and the recent attacks on the country's democracy.
One of the most respected journalists in the country, she has been with Grupo Globo for over three decades, and is a columnist for the newspaper O Globo, a commentator for Bom Dia Brasil, CBN and GloboNews, where she also has a talk show. In addition to her career as a journalist, Leitão has also published 16 books, in various literary genres, such as non-fiction, romance and several children's books. "Tempos Extremos" (2014), her only romance novel, which discusses the traumas of the dictatorship, is, according to Leitão, full of information that she took from the reports she wrote.
“I have two loves: journalism and books. But they run very parallel because my journalism has informed a lot of my literature, both fiction and nonfiction,” Leitão said. “So these are two parallels that meet. I think this is the fundamental moment of their encounter.”
As part of the 5 Questions series, LJR spoke with Leitão about the significance of her election to the ABL, challenges of contemporary journalism, attacks and disinformation campaigns targeting journalists, including herself, and the role of the press in defending Brazilian democracy. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
1- What does it mean to you, as a journalist, to be elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL)?
Journalism is the main focus of my life. I have been in journalism for 53 years. And I think that journalism creates literature. We are constantly producing texts, some of which are of literary quality. And we are writing what historians or people from other fields will later look for, so we have to write in the heat of the moment. I think journalism is a powerful profession for building this path. And I am a journalist at heart, the kind of person who likes being a reporter, likes going out into the street, likes discovering something new, is amazed, gets excited. When I go to do a new report, I am afraid that I won't be able to see it, or do it right. I have all those qualities of a journalist who is just starting out in his career. I have never lost that enthusiasm.
And at the Academy, you have had many journalists throughout its history. In my chair, for example, Chair 7, the founder [Valentim Magalhães] was also a journalist. But soon the second one comes along, Euclides da Cunha, who wrote that great report, which became the great book [“Os Sertões”] in which all our contradictions are exposed. I love books, I always wanted to be a writer and I didn’t dream of the ABL, I dreamed of books.
2- Why do you consider it important for journalism to occupy this space in the ABL now, at a time of so many attacks on the press?
Attacks on the press have always happened, and now they are more violent and sophisticated. I entered the profession when journalism was under attack, which was the dictatorship, with direct censorship. I had articles taken from my [typewriter]: They said: ‘Look, the censor has arrived and this article cannot be published.’ It has always been a profession in which you practice while criticized by a government, by a political group, attacked for lack of understanding. So, it has never been an easy path.
And this is indeed a time to protect journalism at all levels. Those old attacks continue, but there are new attacks that involve lies, deliberate lies, lies constructed in the most sophisticated way with deep fake news. Attacking journalists and their most precious asset, which is their credibility. And this is a political project to destroy the credibility of the press for a project that affects democracy, that attacks democracy. So, it is necessary to strengthen journalism in every way because it is a central part of this value that is Brazilian democracy.
3- In the current context surrounding journalism, with artificial intelligence and technologies that we are still understanding, what worries you the most and what excites you the most?
What reassures me is that I know that tomorrow, the day after, somewhere, reporters are going to be looking for information the old way, which is a person looking for a story. And I think that will continue forever. There is no artificial intelligence that can do that, which is you go out in the field and get the information.
Now, artificial intelligence is an integral part of the work. It is a tool like any other, like every other tool that has emerged during this period. When the fax machine appeared, it seemed like something from another world. When the Internet appeared, it was the same. I see all the changes as the nature of journalism, which is to live on unstable ground, to live in constant mutation. Change is a constant in journalism, because change is permanent.
We're moving into this new terrain, so how can artificial intelligence help us do better journalism? And what's the mistake? The wrong way is to ask artificial intelligence to do the story for you. It's going to fail.
We have to understand artificial intelligence as just another very sophisticated tool for us, but not to do the work for us. Because the reporter will always have their importance in the search for the story that needs to be told.
I've never left a story the same way I went in. Every long story I've done, a story that goes to the Amazon, a story that goes to the interior of Brazil, where you have to travel, a big interview that you have to prepare for... I always leave with more information than I had before and that's what I think is wonderful about journalism. I don't want to sit in front of a computer teaching artificial intelligence with very well-constructed questions so that it can give me an answer. I don't want to despise this tool, I want this tool to be added to our work.
4 - In recent years, journalists, including you, have been the target of disinformation and violence campaigns. How do you maintain your emotional balance and willingness to continue writing, continue investigating and exposing yourself in an increasingly hostile environment?
Look, the first thing I want to say to everyone who attacks me is that I'm not going to give up. Period. The second thing is that, honestly, it's hard.
It's difficult because sometimes you're busy with an article, busy with something, and suddenly a huge lie comes along and you have to mobilize to put out a fire. It's like you're somewhere and suddenly a fire starts in front of you. You have to put out that fire, and then you can continue doing what you were going to do. You have to mobilize hours of your life to deny something you didn't do. I've been a victim of this many times, I've been attacked many times, and I know I'll continue to be.
We need to improve all regulations so that people are not so vulnerable, so that they are not so alone. We have to learn to react collectively to protect ourselves, protect our work and not allow them to achieve their goals. Which is to take someone away from their work, to make someone give up what they are investigating or to censor themselves, to engage in self-censorship because they will attack again. I think this is very dangerous.
There is a moment of destabilization when something comes out of nowhere and I have been accused of the most terrible things. I am still building a better way to react faster. What I know, and this I know because I know myself: I will not give up.
5 - In your opinion, what paths should journalism take to remain relevant in the coming years?
We have to continue to know the nature of our work. We are the middle of the road, we are the medium of conversation, we are the media. And we will not be replaced. Journalism professionals and professional journalism will always be necessary.
Today, in this world where there is much more information available, many more producers of content of different quality, we, the information professionals, are more important. In this world of mass production of lies, we who know how to check, confirm, verify, show that this is a lie, this is true, are more necessary. I think we have never been as necessary as in this moment of this Tower of Babel of information. Because we are the professionals. It is as if we were on a road with everyone driving, but there are professionals behind the wheel. So we are the professionals behind the wheel.
And we have to continue to remain humble at the same time, because true information, fact-checking, is difficult to find and in this wave of lies that are being created, it becomes even more difficult. But we have to sharpen our tools, persist on our path, and know that we are needed.
Why are we necessary? Because we are a central part of society's respiratory system. We are part of democracy. We are part of the construction of a better society.
