Brazil: Opposition tries to bar the creation of a Ministry of Truth

The new department of the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), created during the Lula da Silva government to “combat misinformation about public policies,” has been receiving a series of criticisms on the internet and will be the target of opposition parliamentarians.

Federal congressman Kim Kataguiri (União-SP) informed that he filed a representation with the Public Ministry and presented a Draft Legislative Decree to impede the initiative of the PT government. According to Kataguiri, it is not up to the Executive branch to make an analysis of what is or is not true.

“This is something from an authoritarian state. And it is absolutely unacceptable that the executive act as a ‘big brother’, watching the steps of each citizen and punishing them for that,” he added.

For the congressman, the initiative of the PT government can be compared to the “ministry of truth” in the book 1984, by George Owell. In the dystopian novel, published for the 1st time in 1949, the organ was responsible for rewriting documents and literary works, in order to edit historical facts in an untrue way.

“I believe that it is a ministry of truth, because we have never monitored people’s opinions in relation to the government’s public policies, to later prosecute these people, in case they provide information that displeases the government,” he said.

Federal congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) also reported that he must file a PDL to stop the Lula da Silva government’s decree. “Whoever criticizes public policy will be prosecuted. Who will pay for it? You will, with your taxes.”

Any project to prevent the creation of the Attorney’s Office will need to be discussed and approved by the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Therefore, it should only be analyzed from February onwards, at the beginning of the work of the Legislative.

ATTORNEY AT AGU

The National Prosecutor’s Office of the Union for the Defense of Democracy may, among other things, “represent the Union, judicially and extrajudicially, in demands and procedures for responding to and confronting misinformation about public policies.” 

This means that any member of the public power will have at his disposal a Union body capable of representing him in court in any case that fits into the broad and generic concept of “disinformation,” which facilitates censorship by the public power.

In the decree creating the prosecution, it does not state which criteria will be used by the area to define what constitutes legitimate information or “fake news.” It also does not detail how the structure of the new prosecution will be and what methodology for monitoring the facts will be used.

A notice from the new attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, during his inauguration ceremony, on Monday (2), gives clues about the usefulness of the new device: “Attacks on authorities that we have witnessed in recent years will no longer be tolerated,”nhe stated.

REPERCUSSION

The PT government’s initiative received harsh criticism and questioning on social media. Economist Alexandre Schwartsman asked his followers on Twitter, with the image of the decree: “What is the difference between criticism and misinformation when dealing with public policies?”

Federal congresswoman Adriana Ventura (Novo-SP) criticized the name given to the prosecutor’s office in “defense of democracy.” 

“Nothing undermines Democracy more than decrees ‘in the name’ of Democracy. To defend the Republic and Democracy there is the Constitution! Just fulfill it without pen strokes,” wrote the parliamentarian.

For elected congresswoman Sílvia Waiãpi (PL-AP), the initiative of the PT government violates the right to information and freedom of expression. 

“In my view, in addition to being materially unconstitutional, this will extrapolate the regulatory power that the AGU, by law, does not have,” she declared.

The president of Novo, Eduardo Ribeiro, pointed out as a “retrogression” the creation of a special prosecutor’s office to “monitor and prosecute critics of the government”. “The first week of Lula’s government has not even reached the halfway point and we’ve already had a huge set of setbacks,” he wrote.

With information from Gazeta do Povo