Jair Bolsonaro must pay a fine of 9,430 euros for causing collective moral damage to journalists. The amount that the former president of Brazil will pay is earmarked for social works.
A court of second instance upheld a financial penalty imposed on former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for the “collective moral damage” he caused journalists.
The sentence, published this Friday, was handed down by the Court of Justice of the state of São Paulo and imposes a fine of 50 thousand reais (about 9,430 euros) to the former president, who has faced several legal problems since his term ended. The court confirmed the decision of the lower court in July 2022, following a complaint filed by the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of São Paulo.
In the complaint, the union maintained that Bolsonaro had practiced a “moral siege” against “all journalists”, whose “honor and image” affected the work of professional media with his continuous disqualifications.
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When he took power in January 2019, Jair Bolsonaro began to constantly criticize media companies, in many cases going so far as to make direct, personal, and verbal attacks on journalists covering their activities.
This situation worsened in the electoral campaign last October, in which Bolsonaro was defeated at the polls by the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The disqualifications and even threats of Bolsonaro and the extreme right groups that support him have been reflected, in recent years, in various reports presented by international organizations.
One of them, prepared by the Inter-American Press Association (SIP) and published last April, highlighted that “starting in October there was a marked radicalization of the extreme right” in Brazil, and pointed out that “many journalists were harassed and attacked”.
The confirmed sentence, however, refers to events prior to the campaign and which, according to the court, were characteristic of the ultra-right-wing politician’s government. The money from the fine must be deposited in a public fund intended to “compensate the company for the damages caused to the community” and They will be used for social works that will be defined later.
Source: Observadora
