Minister Benedito Gonçalves, from the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), determined this Friday (23) the removal of publications in the official accounts of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) with excerpts from the candidate’s speech at the UN General Assembly.
According to Gonçalves, who is also the General Inspector of Electoral Justice, the exploitation of excerpts from the speech for electoral purposes has “potential anti-isonomic impact” in the race for the Presidency of the Republic.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok will have 24 hours to remove publications from the president’s official accounts, under a daily fine of R$10,000.
In the same decision, the minister denied the request by the Brasil da Esperança Coalition, which supports the candidacy of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), for TV Brasil to be forced to exclude the entirety of the president’s speech at the UN.
Gonçalves understands that the recording on the TV Brasil channel left the speech “duly contextualized” and the presenters limited themselves to “informing viewers that it was the president’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly”.
“Everything happens in a way that is compatible with the coverage expected from a public broadcaster”, he adds.
According to the minister, the speech at the UN was an “official act whose historical record is relevant, and which was broadcast in protocol form by TV Brasil”.
On Wednesday (21), Benedito Gonçalves had banned Bolsonaro’s campaign from using the president’s speech at the UN General Assembly in their election advertisements.
“The use of images in electoral propaganda would tend to violate isonomy, as it would make the performance of the head of state, at a time inaccessible to any of the other competitors, exploited to project the image of the candidate”, said the minister in the decision. .
In the two actions against the electoral use of Bolsonaro’s speech, the coalition supporting Lula argues that the president used the official event to defend the government and attack the PT.
For the coalition, the case represents “usurpation of political power for its own benefit and deliberate confusion between office and candidacy”.
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