RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Jair Bolsonaro stooped down another level in his aggressive discourse, and this time struck two targets: the press and women. On Tuesday morning, the president insulted the Folha de S.Paulo reporter, Patricia Campos Mello, using ironical sexual innuendo.
“She [the reporter] wanted a scoop [an exclusive, in journalistic jargon]. She wanted the scoop at any cost,” he said, laughing, to a group of sympathizers outside the Alvorada Palace in a purposeful wordplay that suggests exchanging information for sex. The statement was in reference to a false deposition by Hans River do Rio Nascimento, a former employee of a mass-messaging agency by WhatsApp, given last week at the Fake News Inquiry Committee (CPMI) in Congress. Folha denied every single point of Nascimento’s statements on the same day of his deposition.
The insult comes in the wake of the president’s – and of his sons and followers – escalation against the press. Last week, federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro had done something similar by going on Twitter and implying that Campos Mello had suggested a sexual encounter in exchange for access to information. The post triggered a slanderous campaign, with misogynistic messages and even threats from Bolsonarists against the journalist on social media.
The attack on the journalist coincided with a news story unfavorable to Bolsonaro, who refrained from replying to questions on the rise in the price of gasoline and a letter signed by governors criticizing him. Similarly, the president refrained from commenting on what motivated the death of ex-police officer Adriano da Nóbrega on February 9th in Bahia.
Nóbrega was a key player in the inquiry into the criminal underworld’s relationship with one of his sons, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, and consequently with his family. The increasingly hostile statements ensure repercussions, albeit negative, at a time when the government needs good news in the economy, with a record-high dollar, and issues such as the months-long wait of over one million families for the Bolsa Família (Family Grant) benefit.
Scornfully, he referred to a deposition made by Hans River to the Prosecutor’s Office. “Look at the Folha de S. Paulo reporter, there’s another video of her there. I’m not discussing it here because there are ladies over there. She said, “I’m (…) from the PT,” right? In Hans River’s statement to the Prosecutor’s Office at the end of 2018 he talks about the reporter harassing him,” he said, then laughing, adding insult to sexual innuendo.
Hans River was seen last week in São Paulo’s public defender’s office shortly after his testimony at the CPMI, in which he alleged without evidence that he had been harassed by the reporter.
Last year, Bolsonaro had used a similar tactic to dodge questions about former adviser Fabrício Queiroz, who worked in the office of then-state deputy Flávio Bolsonaro. On Shrove Tuesday, he posted a video in which a man urinated on another, suggesting that the nationwide celebrations had this pattern. “This is what many street blocks have become in Brazilian Carnaval,” Bolsonaro wrote in the post that sparked such outrage that it was ultimately deleted.
At the time, the Prosecutor’s Office was looking into suspicious financial transactions by Flávio and Queiroz in what became known as the ‘splitting’ scheme, which involved hiring ghost employees who were on the payroll but did not actually work, and kicked back part or all of their salaries. Among these employees were the now ex-wife and mother of Adriano da Nóbrega.
The repercussions of the scheme extended as far as Bolsonaro’s home. Among the transactions reported by the Financial Activities Control Board (COAF), there is a deposit of R$24,000 from Queiroz to First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro. Queiroz is on the run to this day.
Patrícia Campos Mello has been the target of repeated attacks since late 2018, when she published a report on mass messaging of fake news by entrepreneurs campaigning against the Workers’ Party (PT). At the time, she had her WhatsApp account hacked and was threatened. The story earned the reporter the International Press Freedom Award, awarded late last year by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York City.
Source: El Pais