"Maharajas sue website for revealing salaries"
Congresso em Foco published a list with the names and salaries of senior Senate employees; many exceed the R$26 salary cap, reaching R$35; 43 employees want the website to unpublish the list; here
Evam Sena_247, in Brasília – Forty-three Senate employees who earn "super salaries" have filed identical individual lawsuits demanding that the website Congresso em Foco remove from its website the list of 464 Senate employees who, according to an audit by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), receive salaries exceeding the constitutional ceiling for public servants, which is R$ 26.723. The compensation sought from the website could reach almost R$ 1 million.
The legal battle is a consequence of a series of reports published by Congresso em Foco about civil servants and senators who earn more than the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court (STF). The website revealed that there are civil servants who earn up to R$ 35.290,04.
The Sindilegis (Union of Federal Legislative Branch and Court of Accounts Employees) had already filed two lawsuits against Congresso em Foco requesting the removal of the list and a ban on the dissemination of similar information. Both lawsuits were dismissed by the courts, and the union "lent" its lawyers so that the employees themselves could file lawsuits, each seeking compensation of R$ 21,8.
In the first lost case, Judge Tiago Fontes Moretto ruled that the claim was not in the interest of the entire class of civil servants, but rather of a group of employees, and therefore, Sindilegis (the union) lacked the legal standing to file the lawsuit. "The public interest must prevail over the private interest," said Judge Marco Antônio Costa in the second case.
The journalist and director of the website, Sílvio Costa, classified the strategy as an attempt to "constrain the right to information." If convicted, the website could be shut down due to a lack of resources to remain operational. The offensive was criticized by journalists' professional associations and by the president of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association), Ophir Cavalcante.
According to Cavalcante, the civil servants' attitude constitutes "bad faith litigation" and an "attack on freedom of expression." The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalists (Abraji) argues that the topic of the series of reports is of public interest, since the civil servants' salaries are paid with public funds.
See the article from Congresso em Foco. here.