Brazil’s Bolsonaro Accused of Trying to Censure the Press

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Eighteen entities operating in Brazil are accusing the government of Jair Bolsonaro of violations of freedom of expression, attacks on the press, and censorship of artistic and cultural freedoms. The accusations were presented to the Human Rights Commission of the OAS (Organization of American States) on Friday. The Brazilian government denied the accusations.

“The decision to hold this hearing is a highly symbolic recognition by the OAS of the profound degradation in freedom of expression in Brazil,” said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Latin America bureau.

According to the entity, the hearing’s objective is draw attention to the ‘systematic and institutionalized’ attacks against human rights and press freedom have endured in Brazil under President Bolsonaro.

Cases of criminalization of journalistic practice were presented. US journalist Glenn Greenwald, of The Intercept Brasil, and Patrícia Campos Mello, journalist for Folha de São Paulo, were two of the journalists mentioned by the groups as being harassed by government officials.

In January, Greenwald was charged with cybercrimes by government officials, in relation to stories about possible illicit activities by Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister, Sergio Moro.

Campos Mello, a journalist who brought to light the disinformation scheme used by the current president during the 2018 elections, was defamed last month by an ex-employee of a digital communications company accused of sending fake news and sexually insulted by the President.

According to the entities, if the current Brazilian administration does not like the topic of a journalist’s story, it tries to disqualify it. This is what also occurred to a story about safe abortion, says AzMina Magazine representative. According to Helena Bertho, from AzMina Magazines, stated that the Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, Damares Alves, threatened to take legal action against the magazine.

“We have been living in fear of the direction that this investigation might take. The simple fact that a federal government ministry took the trouble to make this complaint, when any lawyer could identify that there is no crime there, scares us,” Bertho told OAS officials.

“It is evident that there is a policy of online, viral, massive and public harassment. What the Bolsonaro government has been doing is betting on anti-press rhetoric. There is no effective policy if it is systematically propagated that everything the press does is fake news and lies,” stated OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Edison Lanza.

Government representatives at the hearing denied the accusations.

“In Brazil, there is no censorship. The government, through the president, expresses disagreements with sectors of the press, which is part of the democratic game. We reaffirm our commitment to the broadest freedom of expression in Brazilian society and the press,” replied Alexandre Magno, deputy secretary of Global Policies at the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights.

Magno added that the press criticizes and attacks the Bolsonaro government every day and that there is no censorship on the government part.

This is the first time that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which is an offshoot of the Organization of American States, has agreed to hold a public hearing on the situation of freedom of expression in Brazil.

“What were diffuse violations became an institutional framework for attacks on freedom of expression. The measures to silence media outlets and journalists, to censor artistic and cultural events, to silence social movements and to extinguish spaces for social participation come directly from the presidency of the Republic, from his children,” concluded Renata Mielle, coordinator of the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication (FNDC).