Bolsonaro Revokes Exclusion of ‘Folha de S. Paulo’ from Governmental Bidding Process

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro revoked the edict that excluded the “Folha de São Paulo” from the competition to renew digital subscriptions for the government. The decision was published by the General Secretariat of the Presidency on Friday, December 6th, in the Federal Gazette.

Last week, the prosecutor at the Federal Audit Court (TCU), Lucas Furtado, called for the adoption of a precautionary injunction to prohibit the government from excluding the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo from the bidding process.

The notice foresees expenses of R$194,393.64 for digital access by government agencies to publications such as O GLOBO and Folha de S.Paulo.

With this measure, Bolsonaro has once again been thwarted by Brazil’s judiciary. In October, he had stated via Facebook that he would boycott the newspaper and its advertisers.

According to the TCU auditor, the exclusion of the newspaper from the bidding process goes beyond “the narrow limits of the discretionary route of the administrative act,” and offends the “constitutional principles of impartiality, isonomy, motivation and morality.”

Entities defending the press criticized the president’s statement. The day before, the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and the National Newspaper Association (ANJ) had already repudiated Bolsonaro’s decision not to include the newspaper in a government bid.