O Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) on Thursday (7) condemned broadcaster Jovem Pan and influencer Pietra Bertolazzi for broadcasting allegedly false news about first lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja, during the 2022 election campaign.
The court set an individual fine of R$30,000.
Understand the case
In a program that aired on September 27, the Jovem Pan commentator claimed that Janja uses drugs and has the support of “maconhistas” and people lost in life.
She also said that Lula’s wife represents values opposite to those of Michelle Bolsonaro, who was first lady at the time. For Pietra, the former president’s wife has kindness, beauty and good values.
Dismissal from the TSE
The analysis by the TSE was due to allegedly false news in an electoral contest, and not for damage to honor, which should be judged in the ordinary courts.
The majority of the plenary followed the vote of the rapporteur, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. The judge accepted the PT party’s arguments presented in an appeal against a previous decision by the court at the time of the events, which had refused to impose sanctions on the broadcaster and the commentator.
Nunes Marques understood that the comments about the current first lady, although of a personal nature and addressed to someone who was not a candidate, are inserted in the electoral context.
The minister stated that, from the perspective of making the electoral environment more receptive to people’s participation, radio and television stations, concessionaires of the public service, “cannot be agents of violence and discrimination of any kind”.
“It is possible to extract from the speeches made by commentator Pietra Bertolazzi, on the radio program Panamericana S/A [Jovem Pan], statements of insulting content in relation to the wife of then candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who, as is known, was not a candidate in that election,” he said.
“It is impressive that a political environment is so inhospitable to women that, even when they do not register as candidates, they can be susceptible to gender violence,” she concluded.
Among the magistrates, Isabel Gallotti was the only one to object. “Despite the highly insulting nature of the remarks directed at the candidate’s wife, there was no propagation of a demonstrably false fact, such as the commission of a crime, in association with the candidate, nor do these words demonstrate a risk to the sanctity of the election,” she said.
She pointed out that this was the understanding of the Attorney General’s Office (PGE) in October 2022. At the time, Paulo Gonet, the current Attorney General appointed by Lula, was in charge of the day-to-day work of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office at the TSE.