Rachel Sheherazade

Rachel Sheherazade Barbosa (born 5 September 1973) is a Brazilian journalist.^[1]

Biography

Graduated in Journalism from Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB), is serving the Court of Justice of the Paraiba Valley since 1994 (currently licensed).^[2] Began her career working in TV, Mail paraibana affiliate Record TV. Some months after, she was invited to the Cabo Branco TV, affiliate of Globo TV in the State. Already in 2003, she became presenter of the Tambau News, news of Tambau TV, affiliate of the SBT.^[3][4]

Rachel is known by various criticisms on several themes, including the videos of your comments has won the world, being dubbed and captioned in various languages.^[5] In February 2011, when still worked on Tambau TV, harshly criticized the Carnival in Paraiba, saying that "Carnival is not a popular party, but a party for the elites".

Since then, divides the bench of the SBT Brasil, main newscaster of the Brazilian System of Television (SBT), with Joseval Peixoto, another leading Brazilian journalist and lawyer, Monday to Friday.

Controversies

On November 30, 2012, referring to their attack on the motto "God be praised" printed on the bills of the Real, the anchorwoman said that the proponents of radical secularism and anti-religious groups are ungrateful to Christianity, which, according to her, is the responsible for principles such as freedom, honesty, respect and justice. "It is at least an ingratitude to the doctrine that inspired our culture, our values, and even our own Constitution promulgated under the protection of God." She also stated that "the next target of the secularizing tendencies" will be the Constitution, to try and remove the reference to God from it. "But a simple civil action will not suffice in that case, as they will have to amend the Constitution".^[6]

On March 20, 2013, Sheherazade caused controversy on the Internet after defending the freedom of expression and religion of the pastor and congressman Marco Feliciano, stating that he has the right to express opinions and that he was democratically elected.^[7]

On December 26, 2013, the following message was posted in the Facebook profile of philosopher Paulo Ghiraldelli Jr., professor of Philosophy of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro: "My wish for 2014: that Rachel Sherazedo be raped". ("Sherazedo" is an intentional misspelling of Rachels's surname, Sheherazade, and is a word play with the expression for "Sour Smell" in Portuguese.) Soon thereafter, another message with the same type of content was posted: "Wishes for 2014: that after being raped, Rachel Sherazedo gets a strong embrace from a tamandua (the anteater, a Brazilian wild animal)". Alerted by a friend, Sheherazade denounced the attacks through her Twitter account: "Serious case of incitement to crime, promoted by Mr. Paulo Ghiraldelli or whoever impersonates him. Share!" She then directly questioned the philosopher himself: "Mr. Ghiraldelli, the freedom of expression ends where slander, defamation, threat and incitement to crime begins! You will learn this in court!" On Dec. 30, the journalist posted on Twitter: "Mission accomplished: this morning I went to the police station to file criminal charges against my aggressor or whoever impersonates him. Now, I am only waiting for the legal provisions and Divine providence. I am sure that I have fulfilled my role as a citizen".^[8]

Ghiraldelli Jr. denied being the author of the wishes that Rachel Sheherazade gets raped in 2014, claiming that his Facebook profile would have been invaded by hackers, and he deleted the messages of incitement to violence against the journalist. Ghiraldelli Jr. also denied being the author of other older posts with ironic statements against Sheherazade, found in his Twitter and Facebook profiles.^[9]

On February 4, 2014, Rachel commented on the action of a group of young men who beat a burglar and then tied him by the neck to a pole with a bike lock, saying that "their attitude of vindication is even understandable". Rachel says that human rights only defend the crooks. The Union of Professional Journalists of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro and its Ethics Committee issued a note rejecting the journalist's statement, saying that it breaches their Code of Ethics by inciting to violence and crime, and for being contemptuous of human rights.

On account of that statement by Sheherazade, federal representative Jandira Feghali of the Communist Party of Brazil (Communist Party of Brazil) sued Rachel and the SBT, as according to her, Sheherazade "incurred in the crime of apology and incitement to crime, torture and lynching, typified by Art. 287 of the Penal Code".^[10]

On April 5, 2014, news that she was about to be fired quickly spread, but were later denied. Fans started struggling against the rumored decision.^[11]

References