Lawyer sues STF against investigation of Twitter Files journalists

Lawyer Gabriel Quintão Coimbra, who is part of the Freedom of Expression Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), sued the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to prevent the Federal Police and the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) from investigating the journalists Michael Shellenberger, David Ágape and Eli Vieira, authors of “Twitter Files”, reports that revealed emails in which lawyers from the social network TSE) for the suspension of users.

Last Tuesday (23), the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, asked Alexandre de Moraes to open a new investigation into the disclosure of e-mails which, according to him, would have revealed confidential information from inquiries conducted by the minister, such as the that investigate the spread of “fake news”, which involves “digital militias”, and other TSE procedures that are processed in secret. In the AGU’s view, this hinders investigations.

As shown by People’s Gazettein a second request, presented confidentially, Messias also asked Moraes for evidence to support an internal investigation against X Brasil Ltda., a branch of the network in the country, to study the application of fines or even the suspension or dissolution of the legal entity , if you consider that the disclosure was serious.

In the new action presented to the STF, distributed by draw to Minister Flávio Dino, Coimbra says that the Moraes investigation or the AGU investigation cannot affect journalists, due to freedom of the press and the secrecy of the journalistic source, rights guaranteed in Constitution that ensure the collection and publication of information of public interest.

“The attempt at censorship with intimidation by the Police State and criminalization of media professionals due to legitimate journalistic reports supported by the constitutional freedom of the press of the Brazilian Democratic State of Law is clear. This is what happens in the case under debate”, says Coimbra in the action.

He approached the Court with a complaint, a type of action in which an interested party requests the annulment of an act that contradicts the Court’s previous decision that applies to the case. In this way, he cited recent decisions by ministers Dias Toffoli, Cármen Lúcia and Gilmar Mendes that prevented police investigations and investigations into journalists who published reports denouncing crimes and abuses by authorities.

The AGU says its requests to Moraes aim to investigate X employees and managers in Brazil who leaked the emails, not the journalists who released the material.

Still, the risk is that, to reach those who leaked, journalists will be called to testify, investigated in a hidden way or pressured to reveal information and identify their sources.

“The confidentiality of the journalistic source must prevail even over any illegal acts that may have been committed before the news was released. When the disclosure of relevant information to the public is at stake – as in the case under discussion, which involves allegations of alleged judicial excess – the journalist cannot be punished for the fact that a third party allegedly obtained the information illegally, even if it is its source,” the lawsuit says.

Gabriel Coimbra asked for an injunction, an urgent decision to stop any police action that, in practice, ends up generating “intimidation, embarrassment and criminalization” of journalists, which, in short, could mean an attempt at censorship. The decision on this injunction request rests with Flávio Dino.