Journalist’s Personal Act: Proposal for a Civil Liability Limited to Intentional Conduct

Abstract

Since the Brazilian Supreme Court struck down the Press Act (Law n. 5.250/67) through its judgment of ADPF 130/DF, the civil liability of media outlets has been governed by the Civil Code. This scenario, however, left courts with little legislation for establishing guiding precedents on the subject, with rulings always focusing more on adjudicating instant cases than establishing a special civil liability system, which is undeniably necessary, given the constant fluctuations in our courts’ case law. This state of affairs, however, is challenged by the judgement of ADI 6.792/DF, with the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruling in favor of construing a specific interpretation of articles 186 and 927 of the Civil Code in order to add malice and extreme negligence to the configuration of unlawful conducts in the exercise of journalism. This ruling is emblematic, since, due to the advancement of international human rights jurisprudence, civil liability is more and more the preferred way of sanctioning media outlets’ misconduct. Its malfunction in performing such a role has to do primarily with the lack of jurisprudence uniformity, from which distortions flow that end up curbing freedom of the press itself, such as heavy awards of damages. In order to correct such irregularities, we devise a model of non-contractual and personal civil liability for media outlets founded on intentional conduct in the exercise of journalism.