A responsabilidade civil pelos danos decorrentes da violação do sigilo do inquérito: o caso escola base.

Abstract

This research aims to study the civil liability institute applied to violations of the Police Inquiry secrecy from the legal and social analysis Base School Case, one of the biggest examples of the abuse in the Brazilian press regarding the information disclosure concerning crimes. The Police Inquiry is a pretrial procedure, merely informative and inquisitorial, so the contradictory and full defense are mitigated during this phase. However, since now, the State makes safe the rights of the investigation, trying to protect their physical and moral integrity, through the secrecy given to the investigation, according to Article 20 of the Criminal Procedure Code. But the confidential nature of this procedure is daily put into question due to the media's performance, which, assuming a sensationalist aspect, disseminates materials on crimes still under investigation, exposing the investigation to all sorts of judgments, threatening their rights of personality and successful investigations. In this vein, we conjecture about a collision between media freedom, noting, here, the right to information and freedom of expression and personal rights, inquiring as far as media freedom can be exercised in compliance with the constitutionally established limits. On this track, this paper presents the principle of proportionality as proper means to solve this question, considering the need for weighting values, due to the fundamental nature of the rights at issue. Moreover, the violation of the investigation secrecy and, consequently, of personal rights, cause significant damage to the investigated, moral or material, giving time the civil liability institute and the duty to repair them. The topic under study is illustrated by Base School Case, which tells the owners story of a children's school in “Aclimação” district, in São Paulo, which, after a complaint, appeared as investigated by an investigation seeking establish a case of children‟s sexual abuse. After being reported in the media, the case took gigantic proportions, so damage experienced by those, since they were judged and condemned by the sensationalist media, with the help of society, though, have not even been accused, considering that the investigation has been archived for lack of evidence. However, the damage experienced by those involved in the case has spread in a way that its compensation / repair remains almost impossible to quantify. Based on the foregoing, we sought to demonstrate the damage caused by the violation of the investigation secrecy and civil liability resulting from this fact, presenting forms of remediation. For this, we used the deductive method; as a research technique, the bibliographic; as procedure method, the monographic or case study. Thus, it is necessary a detailed analysis of each point to the achievement of the ultimate goal and the full understanding the addressed theme.