Journalists who cover environmental degradation are increasingly subject to threats and attacks, according to a new Reporters without Borders investigative report, “High-Risk Subjects: Deforestation and Pollution” (PDF file). Its publication is timed to coincide with World Environment Day (June 5).
Guatedigital brought the news that Aníbal Archila, a reporter for Noti7 TV, was declared missing Thursday night (May 27) after being hit and injured by volcanic debris while covering the eruption south of Guatemala City, EFE says. His body was later discovered, and his shaken colleagues announced Archila's death live on the air. (See these videos on the CNN and LA Observed sites.)
In a visit to the city of Sinop, one of the largest logging centers in Mato Grosso state, journalist Andreia Fanzeres asked a resident if she liked living in Amazonia. Her response was disturbing. “I only see Amazonia on television.” The journalist's discovery of the gap between the media's reporting and the knowledge of the local population about deforestation led her to move from Rio de Janeiro to Juína, in northern Mato Grosso, to research the topic.
In a visit to the city of Sinop, one of the largest logging centers in Mato Grosso state, journalist Andreia Fanzeres asked a resident if she liked living in Amazonia. Her response was disturbing. “I only see Amazonia on television.” The journalist's discovery of the gap between the media's reporting and the knowledge of the local population about deforestation led her to move from Rio de Janeiro to Juína, in northern Mato Grosso, to research the topic.
“Our own global warming ‘phony war’ is over. The hot war is here,” said veteran U.S. journalist Bill Moyers at a conference in April, when he compared the importance and urgency of journalistic coverage about the climate crisis to coverage of WWII
Of the new outlets that have launched in Brazil in recent years, Projeto #Colabora stands out as having formed a network of 260 journalists spread across the four corners of the country.
A group of Latin American journalists is investigating another topic of great urgency in Latin America that has not dissipated with the current pandemic: violence against environmental leaders on the continent.
Time is running out and the commitment of journalism at this moment is historic, according to 27 Latin American media that wrote a joint editorial on climate change published simultaneously on Jan. 1.