journalist is ordered to compensate judge and prosecutor

Journalist Schirlei Alves was sentenced to six months of open detention for reporting on the website The Intercept Brazil about the case of influencer Mariana Ferrer, who accused a businessman of raping her in 2018.

In a decision by judge Andrea Cristina Rodrigues Studer, from the 5th Criminal Court of the District of Florianópolis (SC), in September, a 20-day fine was established, quantified at 1/30 of the minimum wage in force at the time of the events, in addition to R$ 200 thousand in individual compensation to judge Rudson Marcos and the same amount to prosecutor Thiago Carriço, who worked on the case, totaling R$400 thousand. The case is being carried out under judicial secrecy and the information was released by Folha de S.Paulo.

The article signed by the reporter published images of the instruction hearing in 2020, when Mariana Ferrer was allegedly humiliated by lawyer Cláudio Gastão da Rosa Filho, defender of businessman André de Camargo Aranha. He showed photos of the influencer and argued that the accused would have no way of knowing whether the relationship was consensual or not. Aranha ended up acquitted in the criminal case and also in the second instance.

In the report, Schirlei used the expression “culpable rape” in a parallel to the culpable crime, when there is no intention, which was considered as defamation against a public official by judge Andrea Cristina, as the expression was not used in the judicial process and the thesis was unprecedented. would have been attributed to the magistrate with “harmful” consequences that would have repercussions throughout the country. “The exercise of this right cannot exceed the victim’s right to honor due to the dissemination of false news or outside the context of reality”, states the judge.

Still according to Folha, after publishing the article, The Intercept Brasil released a clarification note justifying that the expression was used “to summarize the case and explain it to the lay public.” The convicted journalist’s defense will appeal the decision.

“The sentence committed a series of primary legal errors, artificially aggravating the conviction and contradicting all Brazilian jurisprudence on the subject. Unable to hide corporatist concerns, this sentence could serve as a threat against those who dare to denounce abuses possibly committed by the Judiciary”, argues lawyer Rafael Fagundes.

The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) declared that criminalizing the journalist “is a disproportionate decision and violates press freedom”.

The National Council of Justice (CNJ) imposed a warning sentence on judge Rudson Marcos, from the TJ-SC, for the Mariana Ferrer case this Tuesday (14).