Minister Maria Claudia Bucchianeri, of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), denied a request by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign for a broadcaster to establish the order of interviews of candidates for the post of president of the Republic by means of a lottery. Interviews are scheduled between the 23rd and 28th of September.
According to the minister, the legislator was expressed in setting specific and detailed rules to be observed by radio and television stations in relation to precisely the debates.
“With regard to the possible participation of candidates in interviews, which have a materially different format from the debates, there are no specific criteria established by law, which gives broadcasters, observing the parameters of reasonableness, impersonality and proportionality in the treatment of the candidacies, greater freedom of action in the formatting of eventual rounds of sabbaths”, he said.
The minister also said that broadcasters are not obliged to observe, in the interviews, the same criteria for participation foreseen for the debates, and are free to adopt objective and impersonal criteria for participation in the interviews.
“This means, therefore, that contrary to what happens with debates, which have more defined and specific legal guidelines, eventual interviews to be carried out by radio and television stations have a broader spectrum of conformation, based on editorial freedom itself” , he said.
In this case, according to the minister, the television station chose to make room for the 4 candidates best positioned in research to present their proposals and ideas, having fixed, both for the definition of the participants, and for the establishment of the order of their shares, the result of the August 29 IPEC survey.
“Thus, starting the test with the candidate with the highest score, following in descending order, until the fourth place. I believe, therefore, that there is no deviant action on the part of the broadcaster, which could be identified as artificial, disproportionate and personal, to the point of breaking with the parity of treatment between candidacies and justifying the intervention of this House”.
Source: CNN Brasil
