Left attacks newspaper for reports unfavorable to the government

The president of the Workers’ Party (PT), deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), and other figures on the left criticized the newspaper this weekend State of S. Paulowhich since last week has been publishing articles that highlighted the ease with which Luciene Barbosa Farias, convicted of money laundering and links to the Red Command, managed to get appointments with secretaries of the Ministries of Justice and Human Rights.

“The use of a public concession to defame the government is scandalous. The other day someone said here on the networks, if a report is being used by the Bolsonarist extreme right to make fake news and propagate hatred then it is proof that this journalism went wrong”, he stated. When speaking about public concession, Gleisi referred to the distribution of the content of reports by Estadão radio.

Government allies have tried to stifle the allegations brought by the report, claiming that they are fake news, although the vehicle has refuted the accusations. This Sunday, Gleisi mentioned that news from Revista Fórum would prove that the scandal was “fabricated” to “make it appear that Minister Flávio Dino [da Justiça] is sympathetic to organized crime.”

“Article from Revista Fórum reveals that reporters involved reported harassment and humiliation by the newspaper’s political editor in Brasília and said that the lying content against the minister was boosted and also publicized by Estadão radio”, wrote the PT president on the network social X (formerly Twitter). The aforementioned article contains prints of a complaint that was allegedly made by newspaper employees, via the Public Ministry of Labor’s website, who felt pressured by an editor of the newspaper. However, so far, there is no proof that the complaint was actually completed and that it was forwarded by Estadão employees.

The Forum magazine article was also echoed by several left-wing influencers and journalists, including attacks on the editor Andreza Matais, mentioned in the alleged complaint. This ended up generating a reaction from part of the opposition to the government, who came to the journalist’s defense. “The attacks by the PT Government and its allies on Estadão and its journalists, especially Andreza Matais, for the articles about the ‘Lady of drug trafficking’, only confirm the party’s authoritarian bias. It coexists poorly with the contradictory”, tweeted Senator Sergio Moro (União-PR).