Civil Society condemns attack on filmmaker by official government body
On Twitter, Presidential Communication Secretariat calls Petra Costa an “anti-Brazil activist”
Dozens of civil society organizations that form the group Pacto pela Democracia (Pact for Democracy), including Conectas, have published a joint letter condemning the attack by the Presidential Communication Secretariat last Monday, February 3, on the filmmaker Petra Costa.
The Secretariat, using its Twitter account, accused Costa of being an “anti-Brazil activist” after the filmmaker criticized the federal government in an interview given on the U.S. television channel PBS.
According to the organizations, the use of official governmental channels to stigmatize the director infringes on the principle of government impartiality provided for in article 37 of the Brazilian Constitution. The same article of the Constitution states that it is inadmissible for public officials to discriminate against or target specific people.
Costa rose to fame after her film “The Edge of Democracy” was nominated for the 2020 Oscars in the best documentary category. The feature-length documentary, produced by Netflix, takes the viewer behind the scenes of the process to impeach former president Dilma Rousseff.
