Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to pay damages for macho behavior and derogatory remarks addressed to investigative journalist Patricia Campos Mello. A judge in São Paulo ordered the head of state to pay her 20,000 reais, about 3,000 euros. He can still appeal against this.
Campos works for Folha de S. Paulo, one of the most respected Brazilian newspapers. In 2018, she wrote an article about an organization that spread fake news during the election campaign to discredit the left-wing Workers’ Party. Partly because of these practices, the radical right-wing Bolsonaro was able to win.
The president-elect retaliated in early 2020 by insinuating on YouTube that the journalist had tried to get a scoop about him from an employee of a digital marketing company in exchange for sexual services. The judge was of the opinion that Bolsonaro had thereby seriously damaged her name and good honor. Campos also won a legal victory over Bolsonaro’s family in January. His son Eduardo, Member of Parliament, was fined 4,500 euros, also for causing moral damage.
The Brazilian federation of journalists published a report over a year ago with examples of 428 attacks on freedom of the press in the country, twice as many as in 2019. The president was directly associated with this restriction of press freedom in 40 percent of the cases .
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