A Brazilian court has directed President Jair Bolsonaro to compensation to a journalist. Mr. Jair is said to have made degrading comments on her.
Mr. Bolsonaro had advised last year that Patrícia Campos Mello had offered sex to a source for negative information about him.
The judge said that Mr. Jair’s comments had damaged the journalist’s honor. Hence, the president was asked to pay her 20,000 reais ($3,500, £2,500) in the damages. He can appeal the ruling.
In a tweet, Ms. Campos Mello said the victory was of us, all the women. She is an award-winning reporter for the Brazilian Daily newspaper Folha de S.paulo.
The Journalist Against Harassment group said the ruling marked a great day for female reporters and professional journalism in Brazil.
Mr. Jair, a right-wing president who has been in office since January 2019, has a history of dislike towards journalists. All those journalists who have been observant of his administrations.
Ms. Campos brought legal actions on him in reply to remarks made in February 2020.
In its report about the comment, the Folha newspaper cited Mr. Jair for mocking Ms. Mello with sexual innuendo.
President Jair’s statement
President Jair said, “the journalist wanted a scoop at any price against me,” the newspaper stated the Mr. Jair as saying.
Ms. Campos Mello drafted a series of nosy reports about a group. The groups, by using Whatsapp, were trying to boost Mr. President’s campaign. The group was all about defaming his rivals ahead of the 2018 presidential election.
In January, Ms. Campos Mello won an almost identical case against the president’s son, Eduardo. Moreover, he is a member of parliament in Brazil’s lower house of Congress.
Last May, he had suggested in a YouTube video that the reporter had tried to seduce a source. Afterward, she damaging information against his father.
The judge said the comments were an attack on the journalist’s honor. Moreover, it ordered Mr. Jair Bolsonaro’s son to pay her 30,000 reais in compensation.
