Editors and journalists from some of the world’s largest news organizations have written to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, asking him to “urgently step up efforts and provide all means” to find missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous lawyer Bruno Pereira Find.
Led by the Guardian and Washington Post, two newspapers for which Phillips worked as a freelance correspondent, editors from at least 20 major media and press freedom organizations signed the open letter, which was published Thursday.
Other signatories include senior editors from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Folha de S. Paulo, National Public Radio, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Financial Times, Pulitzer Center, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, ProPublica, The Intercept, Agência Pública de Jornalismo Investigativo, Dagens Nyheter, Mongabay, Stat, Reporters Without Borders, the Wallace House Center for Journalists and the epbr agency.
“We are writing to express our extreme concern for the safety and whereabouts of our colleague and friend Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, with whom Dom traveled. Dom is a world-renowned journalist with a deep love for Brazil and its people,” read the letter, which was also addressed to Brazil’s defense and foreign ministers.
“As you know from numerous press reports, Dom and Bruno have been missing in the Amazon region for more than three days. Their families, friends and colleagues have repeatedly called for help from local, state and national authorities and emergency services.
“As editors and colleagues who have worked with Dom, we are now gravely concerned by reports from Brazil that search and rescue efforts have been minimally resourced to date and national authorities have been slow to provide more than very limited assistance.
“We ask that you make urgent efforts to locate Dom and Bruno and that you do your best to support their families and friends.”
The two men were last seen on Sunday morning by the Itaquaí River in far western Brazil.
A rescue team tasked with finding missing British journalist Dom Philipps and Brazilian Aboriginal expert Bruno Pereira on the Javari River in Acre State, Brazil, on the border with Peru. Photo: Amazon Military Command/AFP/Getty ImagesPhillips was working on a book on rainforest development and was accompanied by Pereira, an explorer who has worked with indigenous tribes in the area for years.
The area they were traveling in is remote and the search has been slow to get off the ground. In the hours after the two men were reported missing, the Brazilian military said it was awaiting orders before launching a search.
On Wednesday, as public pressure mounted amid campaigns by luminaries like soccer legend Pelé, singer/songwriter Caetano Veloso and actress Camila Pitanga, officials said they had expanded their operation, which involved 250 people, two planes, three drones and 16 ships, who were involved intensified the search.
Police said they had arrested a man who sources said had been seen with Phillips and Pereira, but officials said they had not directly linked him to a crime.
At the same time, press organizations have banded together to pressure a government that has shown contempt for the media since coming to power in 2019.
Brazil’s extremist president has frequently attacked the press, even singled out reporters with insults and abuse.
Bolsonaro even seemed to blame Phillips and Pereira for their own troubles, calling their reportage trip “an adventure that no one recommends”.
In an editorial, the Guardian called on governments and organizations to put pressure on the far-right leader.
“It is very unlikely that the government will change course without international pressure,” it said. “That has yet to come to fruition in order to provide an adequate response to these disappearances.”
Full list of signers of the letter
Katharine Viner, Editor-in-Chief, Guardian News & Media
Sally Buzbee, Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Post
Dean Baquet, Editor-in-Chief of the New York Times
Sergio Dávila, Editor-in-Chief, Folha de S.Paulo
Nancy Barnes, senior vice president of news and editorial director, NPR
John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg News
Julie Pace, SVP & Editor-in-Chief, Associated Press
Juan Forero, head of the South American bureau, Wall Street Journal
Marina Walker Guevara, Editor-in-Chief, Pulitzer Center
Rozina Breen, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Stephen Engelberg, Editor-in-Chief, ProPublica
Paul Webster, Editor, The Observer
Jason Ukman, Editor-in-Chief, Stat
Thiago Domenici, Director, Agência Pública de Jornalismo Investigativo
Rhett Butler, Founder and CEO, Mongabay
Peter Wolodarski, Editor-in-Chief, Dagens Nyheter
Roger Hodge, Associate Editor of the Intercept
Felipe Maciel, Managing Director, agency epbr
Phil Chetwynd, Global News Director, AFP
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the Financial Times
Emmanuel Colombié, Latin America Director of Reporters Without Borders
Lynette Clemetson, Director, Wallace House Center for Journalists
Quinn McKew, Managing Director, Article 19
Jodie Ginsberg, President of the Committee to Protect Journalists
Gregory Feifer, Executive Director, Institute of Current World Affairs
Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, Channel 4 News
Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent of the Sunday Times
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Channel 4 News presenter
Jon Lee Anderson, biographer and staff writer, The New Yorker
Leonardo Sakamoto, director, reporter Brazil
Nelly Luna Amancio, Editor-in-Chief, OjoPúblico
Katia Brasil, Managing Director, Amazonia Real
André Petry, Editor-in-Chief, Revista Piauí
Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief, The Atlantic