The violent action of legislative police against journalists and the censorship episode with the interruption of the TV Câmara signal and the removal of press professionals from the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies motivated a public hearing in the Senate, this Thursday (11). Representative entities lamented the curtailment of the right to information that occurred on Tuesday (9).
The incident occurred after Congressman Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) occupied the president’s chair in protest against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB). While Braga was forcibly removed from the premises, journalists, photographers, cameramen, and press officers were also assaulted .
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In opening the public hearing at the Human Rights Committee, Senator Paulo Paim (PT-RS), who authored the request, stated that he initially followed the case on television and later through videos recorded on cell phones and disseminated.
“We were all shocked by the violence suffered by journalists on Tuesday night in the Chamber of Deputies. My solidarity with all media professionals,” declared the senator, the only parliamentarian to speak during the session.
The president of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), Octávio Costa, announced that the institution has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) requesting action against Congressman Hugo Motta for malfeasance, due to an act of censorship that violates the Federal Constitution.
“This cannot go unpunished. We don’t just want an explanation, we want this Speaker of the House to be punished. What he did is regrettable and affects us all,” he argued.
Costa said that the organization will also file other complaints with the House Human Rights Commission, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Ethics Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
“When a Speaker of the House of Representatives sets the example that Mr. Hugo Motta did, on the eve of an election, it is highly concerning, which is why I say it is important that there be a judicial response to what happened,” he emphasizes.
According to Bia Barbosa, Advocacy Coordinator for Latin America at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the episode of violence and censorship is the result of a trivialization and normalization of the curtailment of journalistic and communication activity in the country.
“This was brutally intensified during the [Jair] Bolsonaro administration and spread and permeated our society in such a way that even after a change of government and this institutional shift regarding the press, episodes like this did not stop happening,” he assessed.
Violence
The president of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), Kátia Brembatti, states that the behavior of politicians, security agents, and even ordinary citizens has escalated towards violent approaches that manifest themselves in various ways, whether through physical, verbal, or judicial violence, which occurs through intimidation following the opening of a legal process questioning the content broadcast.
“The press is not under a protective bubble where it cannot be criticized; it can be criticized, but there are ways to do so. It’s not by attacking or assaulting people. Violence is not legitimate in any form,” he states.
According to Kátia, there are currently 654 cases in Brazil that are characterized as judicial harassment, based on a classification already recognized by the Supreme Federal Court.
“These processes intimidate journalists. They financially suffocate companies and create self-policing. Society ceases to be informed when a journalist thinks five times before addressing a subject because that subject will cause headaches,” he warns.
Samira Cunha, president of the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj), pointed out that the Annual Report on Violence against Journalists and Freedom of the Press indicates that, in 2024 alone, there were 144 cases in Brazil.
“It’s still a shocking number, and one that we cannot normalize,” he emphasizes.
According to the president of Fenaj, restricting the work of the press results in the loss of citizens’ right to information.
“In a country that calls itself democratic, preventing the press from doing its job through any form of violence, from threats on social media to verbal aggression that very quickly escalates into other types of violence, such as judicial harassment, results in censorship, self-censorship, and is absolutely unjustifiable.”
