In another ruling in favor of press freedom, on Tuesday, Aug. 21, a court in São Paulo, Brazil, rejected a $3.5 million lawsuit against the TV station TV Globo, reported Conjur.
The lawsuit stemmed from a report made by the newspaper Jornal Nacional in 2001 that revealed, through a hidden camera, a scheme of a court to sell seized goods, according to Portal Imprensa. The court decided that the news only reported facts, and therefore, a compensation for moral damages was not necessary.
The ruling said that the article did not sensationalize the image of the author of the lawsuit, who reportedly was involved in the scheme. “Representations of facts, told and supported by oral testimonies, carry the consequence of making irregular situations public," said the judge in the case.
In an earlier court ruling in 2011, the Superior Court, one of the highest entities of the Brazilian Judiciary, said that “presumption of innocence” of those accused of a crime “doesn't stop the press from reporting, even if in a critical way, the current facts."
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
