Bolsonarist Influencer Calls Journalists 'Paid Whores' and Invokes Rape Remark About Miriam Leitão

Overview

• The influencer Paulo Figueiredo, which made the comments on Tuesday, July 28, used live-streamed remarks to call journalists "putas pagas" and said Miriam Leitão "did not deserve to be raped," repeating a rape-related slur linked to a past Bolsonaro remark.
• National journalist bodies including the Sindicato dos Jornalistas do DF, Fenaj and Fenaj’s National Commission of Women Journalists published a formal repudiation labeling the statements misogynistic, criminal and an attack on press freedom.
• The Associação Brasileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão (Abert) condemned the remarks as beyond free speech and as a "grave incitement to hatred and intimidation," and it asked authorities to investigate and hold those responsible to account.
• Coverage notes this episode fits a pattern of provocative comments by Figueiredo about women and the press and has intensified tensions inside the PL after party leader Valdemar Costa Neto recently criticized him.
• The reference to Miriam Leitão is especially charged because she was a documented victim of torture under Brazil’s military dictatorship, and the incident has revived debates over public advertising, media independence and the protection of journalists.