Liberdade de imprensa e pandemia da COVID-19: retrocesso democrático?

Abstract

The present work, using the descriptive method, seeks to analyze the exercise of press freedom in Brazil during the first year of facing the covid-19 pandemic, considering its importance for the maintenance of democracy. In order to do so, it analyzes how each Brazilian federal constitution treated freedom of expression and the press and how this right was curtailed during the Vargas and Military dictatorships. The research also analyzes the decision of the Federal Supreme Court for the extinction of the press law of the Brazilian legal system, in view of the importance of the free exercise of journalism for the Democratic State of Law. The work also presents data from the National Council of Justice and the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism on the number of actions involving press freedom in Brazil. In the end, the work provides an overview of the confrontation of the covid-19 pandemic in the country, in 2020, and the exercise of freedom of expression. Based on a report by the National Federation of Journalists, the study quantifies the number of attacks by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, on journalists as a result of the media coverage of the health event. The research concludes that the number of violence against press professionals is increasing, in proportion to the drop in indicators of freedom of the press and expression in the country, signaling an undemocratic setback.