Public Note #6 – Solidarity to the journalists from The Intercept Brasil

The Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission for the Defense of Human Rights goes public to offer solidarity to the informative website The Intercept Brasil and its founder, North American journalist Glenn Greenwald.

By bringing to light elements about Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava-Jato, in Portuguese) and its links with former judge Sergio Moro, the team led by Greenwald fulfills a professional duty: to enable the public opinion to have access to information that is not only serious but also of national interest.

However, statements by the President of the Republic regarding the work of the website and, in particular, its founder – who was a target of threats of arrest, deportation schemes, and homophobic comments, with insults to him and his family – demonstrate the intention of the current government to constrain journalistic activity by curtailing the right to freedom of expression and by breaking the confidentiality of information sources, which violates professional prerogatives that are under the protection of the Federal Constitution.

Today, in denouncing the atmosphere of intimidation against Glenn Greenwald and his team, the Arns Commission joins the democratic voices that, once again in Brazil, are raised to remember that there is no possible coexistence between journalism and authoritarianism.

We defend a free national press, focused on citizens, which will not be silenced again.