By Isabela Fraga
Brazil got off to a tragic start to the new year with the first killing of a journalist in 2013. The new year, however, also saw the launch of the Vlado Journalist Protection campaign, organized by the Vladimir Herzog Institute (IVH in Portuguese).
Created in 2009 with the goal of contributing to research on the right to justice and life, IVH began its campaign for press worker safety with the publication of a Portuguese translation of the U.N. Draft Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, adopted in April 2012. While Brazil expressed reservations over the plan and attempted to block its adoption, the country ultimately approved it.
IVH said the goal of its campaign is to "help other journalists avoid the tragic fate of Vladimir Herzog [who was] illegally detained, tortured and killed in 1975 by agents of the dictatorship that ruled Brazil for 21 years." Herzog's story became a rallying cry for the movement to return Brazil to democracy. The military government claimed Herzog hanged himself and released an infamous photo of the reporter dead, on his knees, with a cord wrapped around his neck.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
