2023-09-21 11:08:00
The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced this Thursday (21) that journalists in the Brazilian Amazon work with “a target on their back” and are victims of threats, pressure and aggression to avoid covering environmental problems in the region.
In its first report on journalistic challenges in the region, RSF compiles up to 66 cases of attacks on press freedom between June 30, 2022 and June 30, 2023 in the nine states of the Brazilian Amazon.
“Those who accumulate land and natural resources seek to silence any voice that denounces abuses and violations of human rights and environmental legislation”, denounces the NGO in a statement.
“Threats, pressure, aggression… Information professionals in the region have a target on their back”, adds the text.
The difficulties for the press in the region, vital in the fight against climate change, were evident with the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous man Bruno Pereira.
The two disappeared on June 5, 2022 in Vale do Javari, an indigenous land in the west of the state of Amazonas, where drug traffickers, illegal miners and poachers operate.
The police attributed the crime to fishermen with alleged links to a drug trafficking network. The accused confessed that they shot the two victims, dismembered the bodies and hid them in the forest, where they were found 10 days later.
The crime “highlighted the challenge of guaranteeing the safety of journalists, who continue to be threatened in the region”, says RSF.
According to the organization, of the 66 attacks recorded in 12 months, 16 are directly linked to reports on the agricultural industry, mining exploitation, indigenous peoples and human rights violations.
The report also highlights that a third of the attacks took place before the October 2022 presidential elections, when Luiz Incio Lula da Silva defeated Jair Bolsonaro.
During the Bolsonaro government, deforestation in the Amazon skyrocketed.
RSF warns that the threats, added to political and economic pressures, “could lead to self-censorship” by journalists in the region and, for this reason, calls for the adoption of prevention and protection policies for press professionals.
“The defense of free, plural, independent and local journalism in the Amazon must be an integral part of measures to face the climate emergency,” said RSF director for Latin America, Artur Romeu.
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