Netflix has appealed to Brazil’s Supreme Court after a judge ordered the streaming entertainment service Netflix to stop showing a controversial movie depicting Jesus as a gay man.
In the ruling against Netflix made on Tuesday, the state court judge said: “The right to freedom of expression…is not absolute.”
The statue of Christ the Redeemer is illuminated in red in honor of the Chinese Lunar New Year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 27th January, 2017. PICTURE: Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino
The First Temptation of Christ, created by Brazilian YouTube comedy group Porta dos Fundos, portrays Jesus bringing home a presumed boyfriend to meet his family.
The show, which started playing on Netflix last month as a Christmas special, has caused an uproar among Brazil’s conservative Christians.
The injunction ordering Netflix to take the show off its online platform was issued by judge Benedicto Abicair after a religious organisation Associaçao Centro Dom Bosco de Fe e Cultura filed a lawsuit against the show’s creators Porta dos Fundos.
The injunction had been denied by a lower court but Abicair, who handles appeals, wrote that the ruling was needed to protect against abuses of the freedom of expression.
“I understand, yes, that there must be reflection so that excesses do not occur, avoiding nefarious consequences for many, due to eventual foolishness by a few,” he wrote.
“Exhibiting the ‘artistic production’…may cause graver and more irreparable damage than its suspension.”
Netflix has reportedly filed an appeal to Brazil’s Supreme Court. In their appeal, lawyers for Netflix have been quoted as saying: “The court decision aims to silence the group through fear and intimidation.”
The movie’s creators – Porta dos Fundos – have reportedly said the group values freedom of speech and “trust the courts to defend the Brazilian constitution”.
Earlier, the Order of Attorneys of Brazil, the Brazilian Bar Association, criticised the court decision as censorship.
“Any form of censorship or threat to this hard-won freedom means a setback, and cannot be accepted by society,” Felipe Santa Cruz, the Order’s president, said in a statement.
Brazil is home to the world’s largest Catholic population as well as a growing evangelical Christian community supportive of the right-wing government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who once said he would rather have a dead son than a gay son.
His son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has called the Porta dos Fundos’ show “garbage” on his Twitter account, saying the filmmakers “do not represent Brazilian society.”
About two million people have petitioned Netflix to remove the show from its online streaming service.
On 24th December, a group attacked Porta dos Fundos’ headquarters in Rio with fire bombs.
One man suspected of having been part of the attack has fled to Russia, and Brazilian authorities have issued a request for the international police organisation Interpol to help apprehend him.
– with FABIO TEIXEIRA, Thomson Reuters Foundation
