The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, lost this Wednesday the process promoted by the award-winning journalist Patricia Campos Mello, of the newspaper Newspaperfor having offended her with sexist and sexual disqualifications. By 4 votes to 1, the Sao Paulo Court of Justice upheld the sentence imposed on Bolsonaro and raised the compensation that Campos Mello must pay for offending the honor of the reporter, who among many awards holds the 2018 King of Spain Journalism Award. .
“We won! By 4×1, the TJ of SP resolved that it is not acceptable for a President of the Republic to offend a journalist with sexual innuendos. A victory for all women ”, Campos Mello published on her Twitter account on Wednesday.
Bolsonaro was sentenced in the first instance in February 2020 after the misogynistic statement against Campos Mello, but appealed to a second instance court, which this Wednesday raised the compensation for moral damages to be paid by the leader of the extreme right from 20,000 reais (about 3,824 dollars) to 35,000 reais (about 6,700 dollars).
offenses
The journalist was the object of offenses after a report on the mass dissemination of false information in the 2018 elections, which Bolsonaro won, who is now seeking re-election. The matter was investigated by a parliamentary commission and Hans River, a former employee of one of the companies allegedly responsible for the messages in favor of Bolsonaro, accused the journalist of trying to “seduce” him and offer him “sex” in exchange for information. Newspaper He denied that accusation and published all the messages exchanged by the journalist with River, which, on the contrary, suggested that the informant himself came to propose greater intimacy, which was flatly rejected by Campos Mello.
Even so, the president attacked the reporter and in a statement before some followers, at the gates of his official residence, said that “she wanted a ‘furo’ at all costs,” and thus used a word that in Spanish means hollow or hole and in the jargon of Brazilian journalism is a first. “He wanted to give the ‘furo’ at any price against me,” the president added in a mocking tone, giving that expression a vulgar twist that alludes to sexual offers.
After those statements, Campos Mello was the subject of a massive attack on social networksin which the deputy even participated Eduardo Bolsonaroson of the president, who echoed dozens of sexist messages against the reporter.