Bolsonaro says missing journalist 'disliked' in Amazon [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Thursday, 16 Jun 2022 7:04 AM MYT

ATALAIA DO NORTE, June 16 — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro drew fresh criticism Wednesday for saying a British journalist missing in the Amazon was “disliked” for his reporting on the region and should have been more careful.

Bolsonaro has come under international pressure over the case of veteran correspondent Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who disappeared June 5 in the remote Javari Valley after receiving threats during a reporting trip to the region, a hotbed of drug trafficking and environmental crimes.

The far-right president, whose government has been accused of dragging its feet in the investigation, stirred new controversy with his latest comments on the case.

“That Englishman was disliked in the region, because he wrote a lot of articles against illegal gold miners (and) environmental issues,” Bolsonaro said.

“A lot of people didn’t like him. He should have more than redoubled the precautions he was taking. And he decided to go on an excursion instead,” he told journalist Leda Nagle in an interview for her YouTube channel.

. . .

“How disgusting,” journalist Ana Luiza Basilio wrote on Twitter.

More:
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2022/06/16/bolsonaro-says-missing-journalist-disliked-in-amazon/12578