The former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Sunday (April 21, 2024) that Sérgio Tavares, Portuguese journalist and right-wing activist, “gave voice” to him and his supporters in Europe. The former Chief Executive made the statement hugging Tavares at the event held in Copacabana, Rio.
“Today we begin to have a voice outside Brazil as well. On the European continent there is a boy here, who was detained on February 25th, when he arrived in São Paulo to join our movement. Sérgio Tavares, gave us a voice not only in Portugal, but throughout Europe”declared Bolsonaro.
Embracing Bolsonaro, Sérgio Tavares was moved when he was applauded by the protesters. On February 25, at the event on Av. From São Paulo, the Portuguese journalist was detained for 4 hours by the PF (Federal Police).
The Senate Public Security Committee summoned the PF to explain why the journalist was stopped. To the collegiate, the corporation's Administrative Police director, Rodrigo de Melo Teixeira, said that the Portuguese activist was “interviewee” upon arriving at Guarulhos Airport, in São Paulo, on February 25th. He also denied arresting and withholding Tavares' passport.
Read other topics discussed by Bolsonaro in his speech:
- amnesty for prisoners on the 8th of January – “You don’t want to condemn an absurd number of people because some made mistakes by invading and vandalizing property as if they were terrorists or coup plotters”;
- Lula's Esplanade – “Can you compare these 38 Lula ministers with Bolsonaro's 23? Look at Paulo Guedes’ profile, compare it to Haddad, the worst mayor in the history of São Paulo”;
- investigations against you – “The system didn’t like our 4 years and started working against freedom of expression”;
Watch Bolsonaro's speech in Copacabana (34min25s):
WORKS AS A JOURNALIST
Journalist Sérgio Tavares is a right-wing Portuguese communicator and activist, who defends liberal ideas and broad freedom of expression. There's a YouTube channel since July 2022 with more than 350 thousand subscribers.
Tavares works as a journalist, does interviews and maintains news programs about politics and contemporary circumstances. On February 3, 2024, interviewed Jair Bolsonaro.
In Portugal, the CCPJ (Professional Journalist Card Commission) says that in its database there is no record of Tavares as a journalist. The CCPJ is a corporation that anyone who works as a journalist may or may not join and registration with this entity is not legally required to carry out activities related to the profession. Some private or public entities may require such registration in Portugal, but those who do not have it are free to work on their own digital newspaper or interview channel on YouTube, as Tavares does.
“This organism [CCPJ] independent of public law never issued any professional accreditation title to Sérgio Tavares”said the commission after the repercussion of the case in a official note (118 kB – PDF) on February 26, 2024.
The title of the note from the corporate entity for journalists in Portugal is: “CCPJ clarifies that Sérgio Tavares is not a journalist”. Despite the claim of whether or not to grant the title of journalist to someone in the country, the CCPJ does not have this power.
To practice as a journalist in Portugal and also in Brazil or most Western countries There is no law that requires you to have a diploma or license to work in media outlets.
VISA
The CNI (National Immigration Council) requires a temporary work visa for foreigners who carry out journalistic activities in Brazil. The norm is in normative resolution 17, of 2017, of the Ministry of Labor – here is the complete (386 kB – PDF).
It turns out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a rule on December 7, 2022 (updated on January 19, 2024; therefore, already during the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva) which exempts European citizens who stay up to 90 days in the country as long as the activity is not remunerated by a Brazilian source. This rule is available in government website.
The rule was disregarded by the Federal Police upon the arrival of Portuguese Sérgio Tavares in February this year.
Here is the note from Itamaraty that waives journalist visas for Europeans and was disregarded by the Federal Police:
Tavares came to Brazil and landed at Guarulhos airport on February 25, 2024. His objective was to monitor the act carried out on that date by Bolsonaro on Av. Paulista, in the city of São Paulo. Upon arrival, he was taken to the airport police station, where he was detained to provide information to the Federal Police. The PF said that the reason for the temporary detention was to check whether Tavares had a professional visa, since his intention would be to act as a journalist during the Bolsonarista act.
“The PF is carrying out the standard procedure to assess the individual’s situation, checking whether they are in the country for tourism or work and how long they intend to stay in the country, following the regular protocol for admitting foreigners. This individual would have published on his social networks that he would come to the country to cover an event. However, this requires a work visa, which he did not present.”says an excerpt from the PF document.
It turns out that Tavares, however, was questioned only about his opinions on the political situation in Brazil. “I was not interrogated because of a visa, but rather to try to arrest, for 'crimes of opinion', a European citizen”, he said in a video published on his profile on X (formerly Twitter). This Portuguese statement is corroborated in the journalist's statement, signed by himself and the representative of the Federal Police in Guarulhos – as shown in the copy of the document, further down in this post.
The PF reported in its note that Tavares was asked about comments made on his social media profiles about Brazilian democracy, vaccines, the Federal Supreme Court and other topics. The agency states that the procedure is standard and is followed at all airports around the world.
It turns out that thousands of foreigners arrive in Brazil every day and may have expressed controversial opinions about their concept of democracy, the effectiveness of vaccines or the actions of the Federal Supreme Court. It is not clear nor has the PF explained until now why Tavares was the only one chosen to give a statement among the passengers on the flight that brought him from Portugal on February 25th. The corporation has not yet clarified whether the order to detain and interrogate the Portuguese man was determined by the organization's management or directly by the STF.
Finally, there is another inconsistency in the information provided so far by the PF. The corporation does not explain why the Portuguese was released if the body's understanding was that he would need a visa to do the “photographic coverage of an event”. Tavares did not have this visa. But he was released after being detained in Guarulhos for around 4 hours.
Here's the complete (PDF -122 kB) of the journalist's statement to the PF on February 25, 2024. And, below, the image of the document:
OFFICIAL NOTE FROM THE PF
Below is the full note released by the PF on February 25, 2024, with several points to be clarified. O Power360 He asked the corporation about the information errors in the note on several occasions, but to date he has not received a response:
“Regarding the video circulating on social media of a Portuguese citizen claiming that he was unduly prevented from entering Brazil, the Federal Police informs that this allegation is false.
“The PF is carrying out the standard procedure to assess the individual’s situation, checking whether they are in the country for tourism or work and how long they intend to stay in the country, following the regular protocol for admitting foreigners. This individual would have published on his social networks that he would come to the country to cover an event. However, this requires a work visa, which he did not present.
“In addition, the foreigner was asked about comments he made about democracy in Brazil, stating that the country is experiencing a 'dictatorship of the Judiciary', in addition to other statements along the same lines, posted on his social networks.
“It is worth noting that the same measures are adopted by default in the vast majority of international airports.”
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