José António Saraiva was convicted of the crime of wanton privacy by the Lisbon Judicial Court, advance this Wednesday the Diário de Notícias.
According to the newspaper, the former director of Expresso e do Sol was ordered to pay a daily fine of 30 euros per day for 180 days, for a total of 5,400 euros. José António Saraiva was also ordered to pay damages to the complainants and assistants in the process, namely, to journalist Fernanda Câncio and to an ex-boyfriend of his, who worked for the newspaper Expresso, in the amount of 15 thousand euros each.
At issue is the lawsuit raised against the book “Me and the Politicians – What I could not (or did not want) to write until today”, written by José António Saraiva and published by Gradiva in September 2016. In one of the chapters, the author referred to details of the intimate life of journalist Fernanda Câncio, when she was dating the ex-copydesk of Expresso. The journalist at Diário de Notícias and her former companion filed a complaint against José António Saraiva and Gradiva editor Guilherme Valente.
On Twitter Fernanda Câncio has already reacted to the Court’s decision by stressing the “importance of the decision” that she considered “fair”. The journalist also dubbed the book “one of the biggest disgustings ever given to the print”.
the author of one of the biggest nojeiras ever given to the print was condemned, as is fair. an important decision of the Portuguese justice, which had already ordered the edition q referred to to be removed. https://t.co/x1F0lutnzE
– fcancio (@fcancio) July 8, 2020
To the Observer, José António Saraiva only confirmed that he will appeal the court’s decision.
The trial started several months ago, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it had to be stopped. Now resumed, José António Saraiva’s sentence was read out of the trial, and he was condemned for wanton privacy by Judge Afonso Nunes, who considered that the paragraphs referring to the two plaintiffs could not be published under the freedom of expression.
According to the DN, after the reading, the magistrate will have indicated that the defense is likely to appeal the decision in the Lisbon Court of Appeal.
Updated at 10:28 pm with reply from José António Saraiva
–
