Aras ordinance generates fear of censorship among prosecutors – 01/18/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

The decision of the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, to centralize all the communication of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) in a national system caused controversy among attorneys of the Republic in the states. There is, among them, the fear that the instrument could be used to obfuscate the disclosure of investigations and even for censorship purposes.

SPLIT BALL

The assessment, however, is not a majority among members of the category. For members of the National Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (CNMP), the measure was expected — and welcome — after a judgment that took place at the body in December last year.

BOOMERANG

On the occasion, a former member of Lava Jato do RJ was held responsible for leaking information considered confidential through the official communication of the MPF.

APPROVAL

The ordinance edited by Aras this week subordinates to the Secretariat of Social Communication of the body, located in Brasília, the processes of revision, edition and publication of texts made by state units of the MPF and by the Attorney General’s Office.

APPROVAL 2

The secretariat will also be in charge of activities such as the relationship with the press and the management of profiles on social networks. According to the document, the measure was born from the need “to promote the principle of unity” in institutional communication and to minimize “information noise”.

THREAT

For public prosecutors heard by the column, centralization can cause their performance to be informed to the population in a delayed and limited manner. There would also be damage to the progress of investigations in which external communication is considered essential for the evolution of diligences, such as those involving human rights and collective protection.

THREAT 2

In the reading of this group, the management power of prosecutors in important cases will be emptied and even threatened in case of veto or censorship of disclosure.

APPROVED

For some members of the CNMP, on the other hand, the implementation of the mechanism is necessary so that public prosecutors know the limits of official communication and avoid excesses. The initiative would even have been agreed upon and applauded by its members at the time of the decision on Lava Jato in Rio.

REMATCH

In the view of a member of the body heard by the column, prosecutors would be feeling threatened by losing control over the narrative of their actions — and, therefore, would be trying to reach Aras.

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ON SCREEN

Editor Luiz Schwarcz and anthropologist and historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz attended the opening of the exhibition “Tridimensional: Between the Sacred and the Aesthetic”, held at the Arte 123 gallery, in São Paulo, last week. Historian Maria Lucia Segall was there. Gallerist Vilma Eid and critic and collector Miguel Chaia, one of the owners of the works and curators of the exhibition, participated in the event.

^{with BIANKA VIEIRA (interim)KARINA MATIAS and MANOELLA SMITH}

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