This study discuss the form of representation of the role played by Brazilian press in the coup of 1964's dictatorship and redemocratization, in texts that were published in Brazilian papers and magazines between 1984 and 2004. The analysis shows how the meanings assumed by the coup and the dictatorship in the texts are superposed to discourses that tie the practice of journalism to the defense of democracy, based on a reductionist oposition between freedom of the press and dictatorship. The association among crise, authoritarianism and the near past produces a comprehension of democracy as a consensual reality, with no disputes and tensions.
press, 1964's coup; democracy; dictatorship