TJ-SP reverses decision on gesture by Filipe Martins – 02/23/2023 – Power

The TJ-SP (São Paulo Court of Justice) decided, in the second instance, to reverse the conviction of journalist Barbara Gancia for a publication, on its social networks, in which it called the former international advisor to the Presidency Filipe Martins a supremacist after a gesture made by him in session in the Senate.

The journalist wrote on Twitter in 2021 that “no minimally civilized society would allow a white supremacist, disciple of a charlatan astrologer to be part of the intimate circle of the President of the Republic and interfere in State policies”, also saying that everyone would be trapped in other countries.

Judge Danilo Fadel de Castro, who issued the initial decision, had determined the exclusion of the content under penalty of a daily fine in the amount of R$ 250 and also the payment of R$ 10,000 in compensation for moral damages. For him, the publication was exaggerated and violated the personality rights of former advisor to former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Judge Enio Zuliani, rapporteur for the appeal requested by Gancia, said that the removal of the content could constrain Gancia’s professional performance as a journalist.

“The appellant qualifies as a journalist and, as a press professional, analyzes everyday life and explores, with her opinion, the remarkable events that gain media notoriety, so it is normal that she has published her point of view on the gesture that the author would have committed and which was interpreted as a message from white supremacists,” said Enio Zuliani.

He concluded: “Maintaining the compensation and the overthrow of the text is, sublineally, restricting the appellant’s action, as if it were a disguised censorship”. The decision is from the last day 16.

wanted by Sheet by message and by phone, former adviser Filipe Martins did not respond to the report.

The journalist told the report that she had won victories in other lawsuits filed by allies of former President Bolsonaro and said she was happy with the result in her favor.

“It may take some more time, but the truth is already prevailing. The press took a while to react to these unorthodox methods of Bolsonarism”, he said.

The text published on social networks referred to a gesture made by Martins during a session, in March 2021, behind the back of Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), while the parliamentarian was conducting an audience.

At the time, Martins claimed on his social networks to be adjusting the lapel of his suit, denying having made a racist gesture.

The three outstretched fingers symbolize the letter W, which would be a reference to the English word “white”. The circle formed represents the letter P, for the word “power”. That is, the symbol is pointed out as a symbol of “white power”.

Far-right symbology researchers say the gesture is used as a coded message so members of racist groups can identify each other.

The then advisor was denounced in June of that year by the Attorney General’s Office in the Federal District on charges of the crime of racism, but later the 12th Federal Court of Brasília acquitted him.