Justice blocks Sandro Alex's campaign against Moro and threatens campaign with fine
Decision requires immediate removal of electoral material on Operation Agro Fantasma; campaign is prohibited from re-promoting the content on television and the internet
The Paraná government dispute won another chapter in Justiça Eleitoral on Wednesday (23). A decision ordered the immediate suspension of a Sandro Alex (PSD) campaign propaganda against Sergio Moro (PL), after questions about the way the former federal judge was presented in a play related to Operation Agro Ghost.
The determination directly hits the campaign of Sandro Alex, its candidate for deputy governor, Rafael Greca, and the Continuing Change Coalition. In addition to the removal of the material, the decision establishes a fine of R$ 10 thousand for each new proven display in case of non-compliance.
What led the court to ban propaganda?
The propaganda used Operation Agro Fantasma, conducted in 2013, to question the performance of Sergio Moro as a federal judge. The Fortaleza Paraná Coalition, responsible for electoral representation, argued that the opposing campaign presented information in a decontextualized way, creating an interpretation that would not correspond to the documents related to the case.
According to the injunction issued on Wednesday, the propaganda would have exceeded the limits of political criticism by using graphic resources and a narrative that attributed to Moro a criminal conduct that does not appear as an object of investigation or conviction against him in the documentation analyzed.
The Justiça Eleitoral considered that the presentation of the facts, as it was done in the piece in question, could induce the voter to a distorted interpretation about the performance of the candidate.
The decision highlights that the trajectory of public officials can be questioned during election campaigns, but that the freedom of criticism does not allow the dissemination of seriously decontextualized information.
Read also: Sandro Alex grows 5 points in a month and shortens difference for Moro
Sandro Alex campaign has two hours to withdraw advertising
The court order establishes that Sandro Alex, Rafael Greca and the Continuing Change Coalition suspend the broadcasting of propaganda in free electoral hours within a maximum of two hours. The measure also prevents the same piece from being re-presented in new blocks or radio and television inserts, and prohibits its dissemination on the internet with elements considered irregular.
If the determination is not complied with, the campaign may receive a fine of R$ 10,000 for each proven display. The payment will depend on the proof of possible non-compliance with the court order.
The government dispute over Paraná comes back to justice
The decision represents another episode of the judicial dispute involving the electoral propaganda of the candidates for the Government of Paraná. The content questioned referred to Moro's performance in Operation Agro Fantasma, used by the Sandro Alex campaign as an argument for political criticism.
With the new determination, Sandro’s campaign is prevented from using the piece in the terms questioned by Justiça Eleitoral.
The measure has a preliminary character and deals specifically with the contested propaganda, not representing a general prohibition of criticism of the performance of Sergio Moro as federal judge. At the time of publication, there was no confirmed information on the possible appeal of the Sandro Alex campaign against the new decision.
