A queda de um herói - o Xanana Gusmão jornalístico e a condição efémera das personagens de imprensa

Xanana Gusmão, leader of the east timorese resistance against Indonesian occupation, was in 1999 described by the Portuguese press as a romantic hero, a man that only wanted to be a common person. But 15 years later, after the expulsion of a group of several magistrates by the authorities of the now sovereign East Timor, the newspapers portray a very different Xanana: the then prime-minister emerges as an opponent to the rules of Justice and protector of corrupt interests. Based on the confrontation between the "journalistic Xanana" of the national daily newspapers Diário de Notícias and Pú-blico in 1999 and 2014, this article reflects on the dynamic nature of characters in the news media and their ephemeral condition, which is consider to be determined by the guiding framing of the news.