MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Violence against news teams on the rise in Brazilian Amazon

The case of Bruno and Dom in 2022 helped raise awareness on the matter

Brazil's National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj) found that there have been 230 cases of violence against press freedom in the nine states of the Legal Amazon in the last ten years, Agencia Brasil reported. According to a study released this week, the State of Pará accounts for the largest number of violent acts against newspeople in the Amazon, with 89 cases recorded in a decade, followed by Amazonas (38), Mato Grosso (31) and Rondônia (20). The murder of English journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira in 2022 stands out among these events.

Vladimir Herzog Institute Coordinator for Journalism and Freedom of Expression Giuliano Galli explained that the murder of “Dom and Bruno” -as it is known- resulted in more attention being paid to cases of violence in the region. The institute develops projects regarding the protection of journalists nationwide.

“Specifically, in recent years, especially after the murders of Bruno and Dom, we began to receive a much higher volume of complaints from journalists and communicators working in the Amazon region. So the great motivation was to produce a document that would support our perception - of having a greater number of cases in that region - so that we could use it to work with Brazilian state actors to adopt measures and create public policies to protect journalists and communicators in the Amazon,” Galli told Agência Brasil.

Violence against journalists is directly linked to investigations into environmental crimes, it was also explained. In 2022, the number of cases of violence against journalists in the Amazon more than doubled compared to 2021 from 45 to 20, a Fenaj survey showed.

“The reports we receive are that, specifically in the Javari Valley, the situation is still quite dangerous and little has been done since then. So it's a motivation to prevent similar cases like Bruno's and Dom's from happening again, not just in the Javari Valley, but throughout the Amazon and the whole country,” added Galli, who insisted that the report was clear in pointing out the connection between illegal activities such as mining, occupation of indigenous territories and the lack of public protection policies. Galli also explained that in addition to reporters, human rights defenders have also been targeted.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)