The lawsuit was filed by journalist Marcelo Bandeira in 2014 after hosts joked about his sexual orientation on a 2011 program.
Dani Calabresa, Bento Ribeiro and MTV Brasil will have to pay R$ 15,000 to journalist Marcelo Bandeira due to a lawsuit for moral damages he filed against the channel and comedians for a homophobic joke in 2011, when the two presented Furo MTV.
In the program Dani and Bento talked about Claudete Troiano. At the time, Dani referred to Marcelo as “the queer who works with her.” Bento called the columnist the host’s “homosexual sidekick.”
Marcelo opened the case in 2014 and requested compensation of R$272,500 for moral damages. However, in the first instance decision, the judge changed the value of his award to R$15,000 “considering the significant inconveniences suffered by the plaintiff”, the decision reads.
The hosts appealed, citing the issue of freedom of expression, also claiming that they were the hosts alone and that they had not written the jokes. However, the decision did not uphold these appeals. “There is no evidence that the crimes were contained in the script presented by the broadcaster, that the applicants limited themselves to interpreting the text and acted rigidly and without authorization to improvise, including the crimes,” reads the sentence issued on Wednesday 18.
Regarding freedom of expression, the text of the decision reminds us that the right is not absolute. “This right is not absolute and is not exempt from responsibility when the contents disseminated against a subject are abusive or excessive, in a disproportionate way”, reads the text. “In other words: if the content published in the journalistic press (in the strict, informative or humorous sense) is capable of causing material or moral damage to third parties, its publication cannot be censored in advance. However, once the content has been published, the injured person has the right to compensation and the perpetrator has the duty to repair the damage”, he continues.
Despite being ordered to pay reparations, the decision chastised Marcelo for citing Dani and Bento’s disputes in the trial. The claimant also cited Dani’s lawsuits against fellow comedian Marcius Melhem. “It does not contribute to the ruling of the case by putting on record the information that the applicant Daniella has brought a compensation action against her former employer/program director due to sexual harassment. It is not credible that the applicant seeks compensation in these files for violation of one’s honor and one’s privacy and, at the same time, and unfairly, with the sole aim of discrediting the party and denigrating one’s image, reviving in the appellant a feeling of pain for despicable and certainly still staining facts the psyche of the victim today”, reads the sentence.
Dani, Bento and MTV Brasil can still appeal the decision. Those involved have been approached to talk about the case and the space is open for demonstrations.
Source: Terra
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