“On June 9, São Paulo state Sixth Civil Court Judge Fabio Coimbra Junqueira ruled that Dal Piva’s 2021 publication of a threatening message sent to her by Frederick Wassef, President Jair Bolsonaro’s personal lawyer, was ‘unauthorized,’ and ordered her to pay Wassef 10,000 reals (about US $2,000) in damages, according to news reports, a statement by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), and a copy of the ruling, which CPJ reviewed.
In the same ruling, the court ordered Wassef to pay the same amount to Dal Piva, a journalist with the national online outlet UOL, for damages relating to the “negative repercussion” to her life caused by his allegations about her professional ethics and sexuality in that message.
[…]
‘We are very concerned by the recent Brazilian court ruling that ordered journalist Juliana Dal Piva to pay damages to President Bolsonaro’s personal lawyer Frederick Wassef for going public with a threatening message he sent her,” said CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, Natalie Southwick, in New York. “This decision sets a dangerous precedent for the Brazilian press, discouraging journalists from reporting threats and fueling the increasing online abuse against women journalists in Brazil.’”
