The plenary of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) unanimously denied today (13), a request by the campaign of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the Lula Flix channel, which gathers material unfavorable to the candidate on YouTube, to be taken off the air.
With the decision, the ministers confirmed the understanding of the minister Maria Claudia Bucchianeri, who had already denied the suspension of the channel. She stated that Lula’s campaign did not point out which specific content would be irregular, and that it could not take the page off the air based on a general questioning.
“It is not possible to suspend an entire channel based on the challenge by sampling some content”, said the magistrate this Thursday (13). Bucchianeri also stressed that it was a compilation of reports from the traditional press, without distortions that could justify the removal. “There is no new creative value added to these materials,” she added.
Following it, Minister Ricardo Lewandowski stressed, however, that the channel does not clearly identify that it is campaign material, as required by electoral legislation. He also highlighted that one of the videos that were in fact questioned brings information about the alleged gay kitwhich would have been distributed by the Lula government to schools, a topic that has already been exhaustively denied by verification agencies and by the Electoral Justice itself.
By 5 votes to 2, the ministers determined that the channel should highlight the information that it is an electoral campaign instrument. By the same score, the removal of the video about the alleged gay kit.
