Attorney General’s Office issues favorable opinion to Netflix and freedom of speech.
According to a recent opinion issued by the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office in the Constitutional Complaint No. 38,782 filed by Netflix before the Brazilian Supreme Court, prohibit the exhibition of the film “Especial de Natal do Porta dos Fundos: A primeira tentação de Cristo” characterizes an act of prior censorship of the State, which violates the position established by the Brazilian Supreme Court in previous cases.
In the case at hand, The Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Mr. José Elaeres Marques Teixeira, understood that the film does not present hate speech, reason why the right of freedom speech prevails. Therefore, it would not be up to the State to censor the content, but rather to the user himself to make the critical reflection from the audiovisual productions’ ratings available on the platform, since Netflix is a streaming service that has access controlled by the user himself.
Therefore, the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office issued a favorable opinion to Netflix, ratifying the preliminary injunction granted by Minister Mr. Dias Toffoli that maintained the exhibition of the Christmas Special and suspended the decision rendered by Rio de Janeiro State Court in Public Civil Action filed by the Association Don Bosco.
Lawsuit no. 38785
More information is available, in Portuguese, in: https://www.conjur.com.br/2020-jun-25/pgr-emite-parecer-favoravel-liberacao-filme-porta-fundos