Jovem Pan demonstrates after MPF request to cancel concessions

On the afternoon of this Wednesday (28), the day after the filing of a public civil action by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) with the request for the cancellation of three radio concessions granted to Jovem Pan, the station gave its opinion on the case. In an editorial read by the jurist and presenter, Tiago Pavinatto, the company claims that it is under attack for being a free press vehicle, independent, and always being critical.

The text also mentions that “defending the closure of a press vehicle is an attack against democracy that was only seen in fascist, Nazi, Soviet regimes, in short: all sorts of authoritarian regimes”.

But most of the text focuses on a critique of the way in which the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) released the complaint on its channels. “The MPF, when it advertises in a digital vehicle paid for by the people, just to boast that it has filed an accusation against anyone, misuses public resources against the very public that owns the resources. This fanfare of an accusation serves to intimidate and tarnish the reputation of the accused. It is, in short, an anti-democratic act, in bad faith, abusive, frivolous, and which intends to deceive the population”, says an excerpt from the editorial.

In the complaint, in addition to canceling the company’s grants, the MPF asks that the company be sentenced to pay R$ 13.4 million for alleged collective moral damages for the content broadcast. The agency also requires that Jovem Pan publish videos about the reliability of the electoral process and electronic voting machines, 15 times a day for four months, with a daily fine of R$ 100,000 for non-compliance.

To support the decision, the MPF cited opinions conveyed by commentators on the programs “Os Pingos nos Is”, “3 em 1”, “Morning Show” and “Linha de Frente”, on the broadcaster.

Jovem Pan editorial in full

* If you prefer, watch the video here.

“What is Justice? There are two answers: one for justice as a universal value – justice as truth existing above all men. Another for Justice that judges problems through laws: Justice as an instrument of pacification and social harmony. Do you want to know what justice is?

Pay attention: in heaven there is no Law, only Justice. Even in hell there is no Law, only Justice. It is on this planet Earth that, in the absence of true Justice, there is Law. Because it is a universal value that goes beyond this world, Justice informs us of the existence of reason. And that is why Justice is what attests to a situation of balance and respect between everything that exists in the universe and thus qualifies that divine Creation is fair.

But humanity doesn’t always know how to respect, and that’s why it breaks the harmony of reason on this planet. So that we can enjoy fundamental human rights, freedom and equality, we created a system of Justice that is inspired by Justice as a universal value.

In this world, therefore, Justice assumes that, because we are all children of God, both the accuser and the accused are right. Therefore, among us human beings, Justice is a process. And it can’t be anything else. This process is established by Law, whose main objective is to do Justice through the institution we call Justice.

The process is not the initial petition, the accusation. The process is also not limited to the decision of the judges. The process is a method, a method pre-established by the Law that encompasses the accusation; the analysis of the appropriateness of this accusation by the judges; the information of this process to the accused, by the judge; the defense; debate over arguments and evidence; the judgment and also the debate about the need to revise the judgment.

The process is all of that. Therefore, to accuse or be accused by anyone, for any reason, is part of the exercise of Justice in the Democratic State of Law.

On the contrary, when an accuser advertises his accusation as an act of Justice, he actually practices an injustice. Because if Justice is in the process, this propaganda is malicious and wants to deceive. It uses the machine of the structure of the Brazilian State to propagate only the accusation, the initial petition, as if it were a definitive measure, as if it already reflected the result of a process that had not even started.

That is to say: proclaiming a petition without the existence of the defense of the accused, the defense, as a heroic measure and of popular salvation, is, in the last analysis, committing a crime – the crime of abuse of authority.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, when it advertises in a digital vehicle paid for by the people, just to boast that it filed an accusation against anyone, makes improper use of public resources against the very public that owns the resources. This fanfare of an accusation serves to intimidate and tarnish the reputation of the accused. It is, in short, an anti-democratic act, in bad faith, abusive, frivolous, and which intends to deceive the population. And because it is abusive, it is an illicit act, an exercise in injustice practiced with the money of poor Brazilians who pay taxes.

The services provided to Brazilian society by Jovem Pan fill many pages of Brazil’s history since the last century. But only now is it under attack. Precisely because it dares to be what is expected of a press vehicle: to be free, independent, and always critical.

This editorial is not limited to a defense of Jovem Pan. It is a defense so that you are not silenced. It doesn’t matter if you are from the left, right, center or apolitical – defending the closure of a press vehicle is an attack against democracy that was only seen in fascist, Nazi, Soviet regimes, in short: all sorts of authoritarian regimes.

Say no to censorship today so you won’t be ashamed of being Brazilian tomorrow”.