Friday, October 29, 2:46 am: “The president’s plane landed in Rome at 2:24 am. He landed at 2:36 am. He was wearing a dark suit and a blue tie. The First Lady was wearing a red dress and matching high heels. Before getting into the car, the president spoke with assistants who were waiting for him on the track.”
Friday, October 29, 4:22 pm: “President, did the pope bless his rosary? / Yes / What did you say about climate? / About the need and moral responsibility we have to deal with it / Did the abortion issue come up? / Did it come up. He said he was happy that I was a good Catholic and I should continue taking communion. / Did the pope give you communion today? / No.”
Saturday, October 30, 2:58 pm: “Background information: All leaders have come out in support of a global minimum tax. The president mentioned that while we don’t agree on every issue, we can address common interests.”
Sunday, October 31, 7:23 pm: “Reminder: President’s press conference begins in two minutes.”
Monday, November 1, 10:40: “On departure, the president was met at the airport by diplomats. He waved from the top of the stairs and boarded at 9:08. We are heading for takeoff at 9:16.”
From the moment when American Joe Biden disembarked from Air Force 1 in Rome, at dawn on Friday (29), to when he returned to the presidential plane, on Monday morning (1st), journalists on the White House information list received 73 emails from advisors to guide them through the coverage.
During the G20 summit, which took place in the Italian capital this weekend, the US government’s relationship with the media — and with public opinion — contrasted with that of the Brazilian government. Detailed agendas, meeting and bilateral meeting summaries, interview transcripts, and even meal menus were shared with reporters at an average of nearly one new piece of information per hour.
In the same period, 11 messages were sent via WhatsApp to Brazilian journalists who went to Rome to cover the trip of President Jair Bolsonaro. Of these, only one dealt with something he had said: a link to the text of the speech at the opening of the summit, on Saturday (30), published on the government’s website a few hours after it was read by the president.
The scarcity of information reflected both the absence of important meetings —during the G20, Bolsonaro had no bilateral meetings with the leaders of the 19 largest economies in the world or with the European Union — and the president’s decision not to submit to journalists’ questions .
The Presidency did not schedule any formal or informal press conferences during the event, a common practice on trips of this type, including those of Bolsonaro himself at the beginning of his administration.
In addition to Italy, which hosted the G20, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Spain are some of the countries that have reserved special rooms for their leaders to answer journalists’ questions. Even authoritarian presidents such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan were accountable: the Turkish leader’s press conference took place at 5:30 pm on Sunday (31) in the Shakespeare Room.
The Canadian prime minister, in turn, made two rounds. “Our companies spend a lot of money to send us here, and there is an expectation that the prime minister will be accessible to answer questions asked on behalf of the Canadian population,” said CTV reporter Glen McGregor.
According to him, it is customary for the leader of his country to hold at least one formal press conference at the end of events such as the G20, to explain commitments made and positions taken.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who would also answer questions from the media on Sunday afternoon after Italian Mario Draghi’s press conference, speaks quickly to journalists every day, according to Radio France’s Olivier de Galzain. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gave interviews to reporters from his country on Friday at the Academia de España in Rome and on Sunday at the convention center where the G20 took place, according to TVE’s production.
Bolsonaro, in turn, in addition to two sentences said on arrival at the embassy in Rome, where he stayed, stopped once to speak with some of the reporters who were on duty at the place. The others, without complete information on the president’s agenda, were trying to get out of where the G20 was taking place, 10 km away.
There were two other conversations with journalists, but one was for Italians. On Friday night, he made an informal invitation to reporters from the Record and CNN Brasil stations for dinner at the embassy.
On Sunday, while the main European leaders gathered at Fontana di Trevi, he gave an interview to the Italian channel SkyTV24, in which he attacked his main rival, PT member Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Brazilian journalists tried to interview the president as he went for a walk on Sunday night, but were shunned and beaten by plainclothes agents, who declined to be identified. “I don’t owe you satisfaction, boy”, Bolsonaro replied to the UOL reporter who questioned his absence at COP26, considered the most important climate conference since the Paris Agreement, in 2015.
During the three days that Bolsonaro was in Rome, the Secretary of Communication of the Presidency did not respond to requests from reporters for the president to give an organized press conference, nor even to give a statement about his impressions of the meetings in which he represented the Brazil.
The communication difficulty of Brazilians clashes with that of other delegations. “Of course there is always a tension between journalists and the staff about how much access reporters can get to him. Journalists always want more. But the staff understands that they need to provide at least reasonable access to him and some of his ministers.” says Canadian McGregor.
According to him, there are advisers in charge of facilitating the access of journalists to the prime minister. They provide the detailed agenda two days in advance and summarize meetings and conversations, although many are considered by the reporter as “disappointing because of the lack of detail”. “At these times, we compare it with the summary made by the team of the leader he met.”
Frenchman De Galzain says that, should any information be lacking on Macron’s agenda or position, his advisors always respond to requests for clarification. “And they do it quickly.”
In the Brazilian case, at least six questions from the sheet made directly to Secom —from agenda details to pronouncements on specific issues—were ignored, and phone calls were not answered.
A question about who the president’s security guards were when journalists were attacked and whether the government would like to comment on the episode has been unanswered since 8:28 pm on Sunday.
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