The future of Amazon journalism after British reporter’s brutal murder

On Tuesday morning, members of several of the indigenous ethnicities that reside in the protected Vale do Javari reserve, in the western Brazilian Amazon, gathered to pay their final respects to British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who were brutally murdered on the Itaquaí River on June 5.

After witnessing the funeral ritual at the headquarters of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari (Univaja), many of the few remaining Brazilian journalists and foreign correspondents who had flocked to the quiet town of Atalaia do Norte in recent weeks began making their way home.

Three men are in custody after confessing to their involvement in the double murder. The trio, reportedly led by fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira — nicknamed “Pelado” — had a long-running feud with Mr. Pereira, who repeatedly thwarted their attempts to trespass into the protected Vale do Javari indigenous reserve and illegally catch valuable pirarucu fish.

Much of the town is overwhelmed with grief, but also apprehension about what comes next. As a Univaja press statement from June 15 read: “What will become of us? Will we continue to live under threat?”

Orlando Possuelo, an indigenous expert and Univaja consultant, notes that the cloud of imminent danger has been looming over Atalaia do Norte for almost a year now. “Everyone has been expressing their concern since the murder [of Messrs. Phillips and Pereira], but is that going to continue?” he asks The Brazilian Report. 

“Are we going to receive more support? Are the authorities going to take our complaints more seriously?”

Mr. Possuelo was the first to raise the alarm about the two men’s disappearance, having arranged to meet them in Atalaia do Norte on the morning of June 5. When they didn’t show, he alerted Univaja and set off up the river to look for them.

He notes that much of the threats he and his colleagues receive begin as gossip in the small town of just more than 20,000 people. “This is a tiny place, if someone says something in the town square, I’ll hear about it two hours later.”

“Typically it would be the case that person X was at the...