"The undersigned organizations call on Brazilian society to express deep indignation and sadness at the confirmation of the deaths of Indian affairs expert Bruno Araújo Pereira and British foreign correspondent Dom Phillips, in Vale do Javari, Amazonas, whose bodies are undergoing expert analysis.
[...]
On Wed., June 15, the president of Brazil preferred to spend his time in an interview describing the journalist as "ill-regarded in the region" for doing "a lot of anti-gold miner reporting," and referred to his work as a "field trip." According to the president, Phillips should "have doubled down on his own security." His commentaries, once again, attempt to exempt the Brazilian State from any responsibility to guarantee the safety of journalists, Indigenous people, and environmentalists in the Javari Valley, and practically admits that criminals have taken control of the region.
The signatory organizations vehemently repudiate such statements, which are not surprising, since they only reiterate the president's aversion to free and independent journalism. Don Phillips and Bruno Pereira were rendering an important service to society by reporting on reality in the Amazon."
