‘Attorney for Democracy’ slips into the Lula government – 02/20/2023 – Power

Almost two months after being prominently announced at the swearing-in of the Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias, the start of work by the National Attorney for the Defense of Democracy is uncertain, with discussions of the group that will contribute to regulating the unit not even having yet begun. .

This will only happen at the end of this month, when the schedule of the group’s work will also be announced.

The future Attorney’s Office’s main objective is to act on behalf of the Union in response to and confrontation of misinformation about public policies.

When speaking on the subject at the inauguration, Messias said that she would “contribute to the efforts of defensive democracy and promote a prompt response to disinformation measures and attacks on the effectiveness of public policies”.

Its creation, however, became the target of criticism from opposition parliamentarians, who saw it as an apparatus of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government to promote patrols and censorship.

At the time, the AGU (Attorney General of the Union) reacted and said that “under no circumstances” will it curb “opinions, criticism or act contrary to the public freedoms enshrined in the Constitution”. It has been announced that the Prosecutor’s model will undergo scrutiny by scholars, associations and the public.

The working group that will carry out these discussions and assist in the elaboration of the Prosecution’s regulations, with members of civil society and public authorities, was made official on January 20th.

“The creation of the group materializes AGU’s commitment to promote a broad debate on the attributions and functioning of the Attorney’s Office”, said the body at the time.

This group will include nominees from the OAB (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil), associations of magistrates, journalists and members of the Public Ministry, as well as academics from areas related to law, freedom of expression and technology.

The first meeting, however, will only take place on the morning of the next 28th, when the coordination intends to disclose the members’ work schedule.

The group will be divided into three thematic subgroups, called Democracy, Integrity of Public Action and Legitimation of Powers; Democracy and Representation of Public Agents and Democracy, Disinformation and Public Policies.

From then on, the expected dates are uncertain. “There is still no definition on the date of publication of the regulation draft”, says the AGU, in a note, when contacted by the report.

This draft will be published at the end of the group’s work and will be open to the public on the AGU website for public consultation. After this consultation, you will return for evaluation by Jorge Messias.

“The team of the Attorney General’s Office, the area to which the new National Attorney’s Office of the Union for the Defense of Democracy is linked, works so that the normalization of the unit’s functioning takes place in the shortest possible time”, says the note.

“However, there is an understanding that the regulation must be made with discretion and in the necessary time so that it best reflects the contributions it will receive within the scope of the Working Group (GT) constituted for this purpose.”

Since the 8th of January, when supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) destroyed the headquarters of the three Powers in a coup act, the AGU has concentrated its work on actions that intend to hold the suspects civilly liable and recover the financial damage caused to the Unity.

Including, the future head of the Attorney General’s Office for the Defense of Democracy must be the same member of the AGU that signs the actions against the coup plotters, the current Attorney General of the Union, Marcelo Eugenio Feitosa Almeida.

One of the entities sought to compose the working group is Abraji (Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism).

For the organization’s president, Katia Brembatti, the invitation is “an advance in these openings for negotiation and dialogue with the government”, which, according to her, did not exist in the Bolsonaro administration.

“When they approached us asking if we could take part, we discussed it with the board and we accepted because we understand that participating in the process, contributing and contesting it is much more important than just complaining about the finished work”, he says.

She says that, on the occasion, she intends to share some of the association’s experience in combating disinformation, but she will make it clear that the entity “is concerned about how the fight against disinformation will be by a public body”.

The AGU, which is the body responsible for making the government’s judicial representation, has said that the action of the new Attorney’s Office will be based on court precedents, especially the Supreme Court, and on the performance of agencies that check false information.

The TSE has had a program to combat disinformation since 2019, which last year had 154 partners, including public and private entities and even social networks and digital platforms, in addition to checking agencies.

Together with the Electoral Justice, these partners monitor false news, which are collected and, depending on the severity, forwarded to the Electoral Public Ministry and other authorities for legal action.

Last year, however, some measures to combat misinformation by the TSE raised concerns among technology companies and election lawyers.