The first plenary meeting of the National Observatory on Violence against Journalists will take place in January and will be attended by press entities and communication vehicles, as well as representatives of public authorities and civil society.
According to the national secretary of Justice of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Augusto de Arruda Botelho, the idea is, at first, to define how cases will be followed up and, if necessary, to charge penalties.
The observatory will be formed by public bodies and other entities so that journalists, media outlets and “public authorities responsible for investigating, prosecuting and judging all these cases” can unite.
The group was created at the request of journalists’ unions, after the coup acts on January 8, when journalists were attacked, after four years of escalating attacks on the press.
“In 2019, there were 208 attacks. In 2020, the number doubled to 428. And in 2021, the number continued to grow. The escalation of violence and attacks against the press and against freedom of the press has been growing in our country”, detailed the secretary.
Given this scenario, the creation of the observatory was seen as a tool to “monitor all cases of attacks against categories of journalists and vehicles in general, by calling the competent authorities, following up on investigations and actively participating in order to help identify of the perpetrators of crimes”, highlights the Ministry of Justice.
For this first meeting, representatives of the Federal Court, the Federal Police, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the National Council of Justice, the Brazilian Bar Association and groups of lawyers who have historically been linked to the defense of press freedom will be invited.
Botelho will play the role of articulator between the federal government and all bodies of the Judiciary. “The mission that the minister [da Justiça] Flávio Dino gave me a pass precisely because of a responsibility of the secretariat, which is to monitor the issue with the authorities and civil society”, he explained.
