‘PB Lava Jato’: STF has majority against film censorship – 05/19/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

The Second Panel of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) has already formed a majority to uphold a decision that overturned the censorship of the documentary “Contaminated Justice – The Lavajatista Theater of Operation Calvário in Paraíba”, released last year by journalists Camilo Toscano and Eduardo Reina.

The production is the target of a judicial offensive brought by the judge Ricardo Vital de Almeida, who maintains that the film contains “several words that are offensive to his image and his honor”.

In 2022, the documentary was censored by determination of the 3rd Entry of the Court of Justice of Paraíba. Last month, however, Minister Edson Fachin overturned the decision.

Rapporteur of the action in the STF, the magistrate decided that freedom of the press is of greater importance for democracy, and that the complaints presented were not sufficient to authorize “the violation, even if provisional, of the right to freedom of expression”.

“It can be seen that the synthetic reasoning adopted in the claimed act, formulated in summary cognition, aimed to prevent the propagation of the supposedly offensive content of the documentary, without, however, discussing, even if succinctly, about such content “, Fachin said.

In the Second Panel, the rapporteur was accompanied in his vote by Ministers Gilmar Mendes and Dias Toffoli. The votes of André Mendonça, who chairs the collegiate, and Nunes Marques are still awaited in the virtual plenary and must be declared by the end of this Friday (19).

The documentary “Justiça Contaminada” is critical of what it calls “lavajatismo” that took place during Operation Calvário, which pointed to former Paraíba governor Ricardo Coutinho (former PSB, now in the PT) as the leader of a criminal organization that collected bribes in state contracts in the area of ​​Health.

The work highlights that the judge Ricardo Vital de Almeida and the prosecutor Octávio Paulo Neto were called by the local press “Moro e Dallagnol da Paraíba”, in a comparison with the former judge and now senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) and with former attorney and former federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol, who acted in Operation Lava Jato.

In the action against the journalists, the judge Ricardo Vital de Almeida claimed to be portrayed as a “partial judge, authoritarian and adhering to conspiracies”. The magistrate requested the payment of compensation for moral damages in the amount of 40 minimum wages, that journalists refrain from broadcasting any comments offensive to his image and that the broadcasting of the “illicit video” be suspended.

Earlier this week, the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD), which opposes Operation Lava Jato, had joined the STF with a request to enter as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the action, in defense of Camilo’s documentary Toscano and Eduardo Reina.

“The documentary narrates one of the biggest actions of political use of Justice in Brazil, after Operation Lava Jato in Paraná against former president Luís Inácio Lula da Silva”, said the entity.

“It is an independent production, investigative journalism work based on real facts and extensive documentation obtained by journalists Reina and Toscano, interviews with those involved and intense work of investigation, checking and rechecking of data and information”, he added. .

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Actors Giovani Tozi and Anderson Müller received guests at the VIP session of the play “Quarto Minguante”, on Wednesday night (17), at Teatro Faap, in São Paulo. The director of the show, Neyde Veneziano, honored the event. Actor Flávio Tolezani also stopped by.

_{with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH}

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