AGU files suit against Pavinatto for associating Dino with organized crime

The Attorney General’s Office, through the National Attorney’s Office of the Union for the Defense of Democracy, filed a public civil action against jurist and presenter of Jovem Pan, Tiago Pavinatto. The reason for the action, according to the AGU, refers to a comment by Pavinatto made on national television, in which he allegedly associated the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, with organized crime, drug trafficking and a coup d’état.

Pavinatto’s demonstration took place after the minister visited Complexo da Maré, an area dominated by the Comando Vermelho criminal faction, without an escort or any type of protective weapon.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office that decided to file a lawsuit against the journalist emerged during the Lula government with the aim of defending authorities in judicial or extrajudicial proceedings involving “disinformation about public policies”. Due to its broad and vague functions, the initiative has been criticized by jurists as it opens the way for the Executive branch to control what may or may not be said in the public sphere, as a kind of “Ministry of Truth”.

“Since this is flagrantly false news, the presenter’s conduct conforms to the hypothesis foreseen among the powers of the PNDD, as established in Normative Ordinance PGU/AGU No. 16, of May 4, 2023”, explained the AGU.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, the “fraudulent and pernicious news published by the defendant undeniably greatly frustrates the purpose of the institutional action of the Minister of Justice and Public Security, inciting panic, distrust, and causing revolt in an absolutely unfounded way in the population”, highlights the PNDD, in excerpt from the beginning. “Now, the news propagated simulates the alleged factual truth that the Minister of Justice and Public Security, precisely the figure in charge of administering policies to combat organized crime, is allied with the practice of very serious crimes, including a coup d’état, in to the detriment of the safety and interest of the population”, he adds.

Through social networks, Pavinatto says that he became aware of the investigation only through the government portal and that “the action was not distributed”. “The AGU, in a clear exercise of abuse of political power, used the official structure of the state to propagate protocol as an achievement,” he wrote.

In another post, the journalist also mentioned: “The government uses the structure of the State to publicize an action that has not yet been distributed in order to intimidate, defame me. The state machine was turned against a single individual. Publish that you went to court? Wait for the course of the process.”

action penalty

Among the penalties of the action, the PNDD requests, outright, that the journalist’s publications be immediately excluded from their social networks, and that “the professional refrain from reiterating the misinformation in question, under penalty of a fine, given that the maintenance of the post gives rise to the possibility of disseminating manifestly untrue content, with the potential to generate years in the image of the Executive Power of the Union”.

The Attorney General’s Office also summoned social networks to inform whether the content published by the presenter made any kind of profit. If so, it requests that the amounts be refunded, bearing in mind that receiving income from a video propagating fraudulent news constitutes illicit enrichment, under the terms of art. 884 of the Civil Code.

Finally, the PNDD requires the payment of compensation for collective moral damages, in the amount of BRL 300,000, in addition to condemning the defendant for the production and dissemination of a video on his social networks, portraying the knowingly false statements related to the minister’s institutional visit Flávio Dino to Complexo da Maré.