The Federal District court ordered former Jovem Pan News commentator Paula Schmitt to compensate journalist Basília Rodrigues in R$8,000 for stating that she would only have reached the position she was in.
The speech aired in November 2023. The commentator was talking about the appointment of the (Federal Supreme Court), when she suggested that he would enter the Supreme Court through a quota.
He then mentioned Basília Rodrigues, who is black and at the time was an analyst at CNN Brasil: “I think she was included in a quota too. So I know she wanted him to be a quota colleague”, he said.
For the judge, the tone used by the commentator was pejorative, derogatory and discriminatory. The judge understood that she exceeded the limits of freedom of expression and affected the honor and image of the journalist.
“The content of the publication is quite offensive and hostile and is above the limit that can be considered a regular exercise of the right to freedom of expression,” said the judge.
The lawyer who represented Rodrigues, Igor Tamasauskas, from the firm Bottini & Tamasauskas, celebrated the decision. “The decision confirms that there was an abuse of freedom of expression and the use of discriminatory content to disqualify the journalist’s professional career.”
Other side
In the process, Schmitt’s defense claimed that she could not even be accused of racism because she has several brown and black people in her intimate circle.
When contacted, she said she would speak out through her lawyer, Emerson Grigollette, who classified the decision as “regrettable” and said that there was an attempt to silence the journalist’s voice. The note denies that the statement had a racist nature and that it was a defense of the interests of black people.
“Turning ideological criticism into defamation is a dangerous precedent for democracy and for the racial struggle itself. Punishing irony and acid criticism in a debate of ideas is to prohibit dialogue on sensitive topics”, says the position. The defense said it will appeal the decision.
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