Past and Present in 2014 Public Disputes over the Memories of the Dictatorship and the Redemocratization in Brazil and Portugal

Abstract

Abstract Despite notable progress in studies on transitional justice, insufficient attention has been directed toward the disputes on the matter that unfold within the press in the different countries that are faced with dictatorial pasts and conflictual political transitions. Similarly, the extensive body of work on democratization processes in Portugal and Brazil shows a remarkable absence of comparative studies contrasting these two cases. This article aims to address these gaps through a comparative analysis of public disputes over memories of the transition that took place in the Portuguese and Brazilian press. We have chosen to examine the pivotal year of 2014, a historical moment marked by heightened political crises in both countries, coinciding with the commemoration of the forty-year anniversary of the April Revolution and the fifty-year anniversary of the civil-military coup of 1964. By analysing prominent media outlets during that “hot” year (Público, Diário de Notícias, and Expresso in Portugal; Folha de São Paulo, O Globo, and O Estado de São Paulo in Brazil), we seek to elucidate the role the press played in memory disputes, especially by endorsing certain narratives about the dictatorships and the redemocratization processes in these two countries.