Da fragilidade da presunção de inocência frente a liberdade de imprensa: análise da proteção penal à honra.

Abstract

Society, since ancient times, has always sought to repudiate criminals, condemning them many times before there was a process that could verify the accusations made and the proof of the facts. Faced with such findings, it is necessary to ask: is the presumption of innocence threatened by the exercise of freedom of the press? Thus, it is necessary to understand the dimensions and limits of each right, and their coexistence in the national legal system. The present work has the general objective of discussing the limits of the exercise of freedom of the press against the presumption of innocence, observing its possible limits and the possibility of a harmonious coexistence in the national legal system. The specific objectives are: a) to analyze the application of the presumption of innocence in the Brazilian and international legal system; b) study about freedom of the press and its limitations; c) discuss the protection of criminal procedural guarantees and the need to mitigate the press freedom. This research will use: the qualitative method regarding the approach, the exploratory method regarding its objectives and bibliographical research as a procedure, using the deductive method. The presumption of innocence emerges as a guarantee of the criminal process that aims to protect the physical and social integrity of the accused until there is a final sentence, acquitting or condemning him. This principle is essential for the smooth running of criminal proceedings and for the implementation of due process of law. On the other hand, freedom of the press manifests itself as a faculty of the media to convey information to society, consequently shaping its opinion. This freedom manifests itself as a true power, which not infrequently condemns people before the final sentence. Therefore, it is necessary to have repression/sanction mechanisms for information vehicles that exceed the right to freedom of the press, so that it does not violate the presumption of innocence and, therefore, the entire criminal process. In this way, it was possible to highlight that the viable solutions for the solution of this apparent conflict are the creation of laws that can better discipline the subject, in addition to bringing criminal responsibility to communication agents who extrapolate in the exercise of freedom of the press.