"Brazilian media manipulates information to siphon resources from the country," says Florestan Fernandes Júnior.
The journalist criticized a Folha report that attempts to undermine Zanin's potential nomination to the Supreme Court. According to Florestan, the newspaper's interest is "financial": a "well-known tactic."
247 - The journalist Florestan Fernandes Júnior, editor-in-chief of Brazil 247, condemned this Sunday (12) to dishonest reporting by Folha de S. Paulo which attempts to undermine the potential nomination of lawyer Cristiano Zanin to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) by President Lula (PT).
In a text published this Saturday (11), the newspaper hides behind "experts" to claim that Zanin's nomination "may violate the principle of impartiality and compromise the legitimacy of the court before society". No "expert" in favor of the lawyer's nomination was heard by the report.
According to Florestan Fernandes, Folha's interest in blocking Zanin's appointment is "financial." "They are defending a government in which they have control over everything. What we see in Brazil is this so-called 'big' press manipulating information to extract as much resources as possible, to swim in the country's money," he stated. TV 247.
Subsequently, he described Zanin as a "prepared man" to assume a seat on the Supreme Court, recalled his performance in defending Lula against Lava Jato, and stated that Folha also shares this concern: Zanin's arrival at the STF confirms Lula's victory and the defeat of Lava Jato, the biased former judge Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR), and the sectors of the press that supported him. "I met with him a few times, mainly during the Lava Jato investigation. He was always confident, correct, a very centered and well-prepared person. He wasn't a criminal lawyer, but he handled the case very correctly and defeated Moro. Something nobody imagined. Moro, with all the support he had from the media and the financial market. We remember how the media covered Lava Jato. And there he was, confidently and correctly, and he won. Moro was the one who lost. Perhaps there's a point for Folha [newspaper], because they also got involved in Lava Jato and the accusations without evidence, in the convictions of Dallagnol and Moro. They both went into politics to save themselves, to save their careers, but it became very clear that they were conducting a political trial, driven by political interests, and manipulating the justice system to imprison a great leader who hadn't committed the crime they were accusing him of. So I think Zanin is a great name, a great jurist, and has all the qualities to be a good Supreme Court Justice."
"When Bolsonaro nominated the terribly evangelical [referring to Bolsonaro], Folha didn't publish this editorial. It also didn't publish an editorial when Collor appointed his cousin, Marco Aurélio [Mello]. Marco Aurélio was appointed minister and he was a cousin of the President of the Republic. So, this game is already well-known. We already know how it works, the pressure involved. Lula has to choose good names, committed to democracy, to the interests of the nation. That's what we need, a strong Supreme Court in defense of our Constitution, strong in defense of the right of Brazilians to have a dignified life. So Zanin fulfills this role, he is a prepared man," he concluded.