The Santa Catarina Court decided to sentence press professionals and social media users to pay R$ 1,500 in moral damages for posting a video made by people to denounce the brutal action of the Military Police (PM) in Criciúma in the approach of a black man, in December 2022.
The decision was handed down by the special court of the municipality of Santa Catarina on November 6th of this year in response to the request for compensation made by the police officers who participated in the approach and claimed to have been accused of racism through comments posted in publications that challenged the legality of the incident. .
In the decision, the court responsible for the case understood that the comments and journalistic articles “exceeded” press freedom to “induce” the reader into believing that the police officers acted motivated by racism.
“The blemish on the applicants’ personality rights is translucent, as, without any support in reality, the hateful label of racists was imposed on them, a circumstance that is sufficient to cause moral damage subject to pecuniary compensation”, says the decision.
The decision is not final. An appeal may be made to the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina (TJSC).
According to the version of the police officers involved, the PM was called by a merchant who claimed that the black man was “sitting in front of his commercial establishment, causing disturbances to the smooth running of his business”.
Upon arriving at the scene, the police stated that they used force to immobilize the man because he was “in a suspicious attitude and did not follow the orders” of the agents.
