The Minister of Justice and Security, Flávio Dino, speaks to the press at the Palace of Justice| Photo: Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil

The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, announced, this Tuesday (16), the creation of the National Observatory on Violence against Journalists. The decision was taken after a meeting with the public security intervenor in the Federal District, Ricardo Cappelli, the National Secretary of Public Security (Senasp), Tadeu Alencar, and representatives of the press.

“Accepting the request of the journalists’ unions, we are going to install the National Observatory on Violence against Journalists in the Ministry of Justice, in order to dialogue with the Judiciary and other institutions of the justice and public security system”, wrote Dino on Twitter.

The sector will be responsible for interlocuting media professionals with the Judiciary and security and justice systems. According to the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) and the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj), only in the coverage of acts of vandalism and violence, on the last 8th, as well as in the evacuation of camps in front of barracks in the states, were totaled 37 occurrences and more than 40 professionals attacked in the exercise of their profession. In the federal capital, there were 16 cases registered.

Intervenor Ricardo Capello highlighted in the meeting with journalists that “when journalism is attacked, it is an unmistakable sign that democracy is under attack”. “It was very important to provide our full support to the professional activity of journalism and journalists, in addition to making ourselves available to investigate all types of violence suffered by communication professionals in Brazil”, defended Cappelli.