The limits of journalists freedom of opinion: an analysis of Personality Rights in front of the reports of the Special Rapporteury for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-american Comission on Human Rigths

Abstract

In this article, the freedom of expression and opinion of communication professionals will be analyzed, understanding their personal rights, duties, and obligations, with the issue that aims to question whether there is total freedom of opinion for journalists or whether there are legal rules and limits to be followed. The objective is to understand the limits of the journalist's personality rights in the exercise of their profession. The work has as its theoretical reference the document entitled "Freedom of expression in Brazil", published by the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Therefore, it will be analyzed later, if the existence of such limits is verified, whether they are legitimate or affect personality rights. The approach method to be used is deductive, which, through general premises, allows particular conclusions to be found. The results found demonstrate that journalists, in fact, have rights and duties, as well as that their personality rights are related to the protection of essential attributes of the human person, such as dignity, honor, image, privacy and freedom of expression. Although the journalist cannot be censored, he must respect the principles of the profession, such as impartiality, contradiction, checking the facts of the news being published, respecting the sources and understanding the social responsibility of his publications and the public interest that your news has.