Mariana Leitão, current leader of Iniciativa Liberal, has guaranteed today that a complaint against the party’s former leader, and current contender for the Presidency of the Republic, for sexual harassment “does not exist”.
Leitão underscores her statements with serious criticism at the nation’s media – which has ‘run’ with this story to the point of ‘sensationalism’. Yesterday, SIC Notícias – a media station that could be seen to be much more aligned with ‘established’ political parties (PSD/ PS) – actually ran a panel of ‘experts’ in sexual harassment/ abuse of women, as if the allegations against João Cotrim de Figueiredo had already been fully established.
This was an appalling moment for media objectivity – and Mariana Leitão did not pull her punches: “It is lamentable that politics has arrived at this point – and it is equally lamentable that the press, in search of ‘gratuitous controversy’ has failed to do its most basic work to the point of considering, even serious accusations, as consummate fact, without any kind of evidence or proof”.
Rui Rocha, the IL president before Mariana Leitão, has equally come out to stress that there was no complaint made against João Cotrim de Figueiredo when he was at the helm, either – albeit it was ostensibly on Rocha’s watch that the ‘harassment’ is alleged to have happened.
The big question, of course, is how much this unwarranted press focus, in the final week of the presidential campaign, could damage Mr Cotrim de Figueiredo’s chances of reaching the (almost inevitable) second round of voting on February 8.
Cotrim de Figueiredo has denied any kind of inappropriate behaviour, and says he will be filing a case for defamation against his accuser. Indeed, he has gone as far as to accuse national media of being “to blame and complicit” in the “echo” that this complaint has achieved over the last four days – resulting in a “brutal character assassination”.
The former legal advisor who claims the presidential candidate harassed her has said (as a result of all the current fuss) that ‘the truth’ will be decided by the courts.
Source: LUSA/ SIC Notícias
