Reuters Journalist Testifies to Brazil’s Congress in Capital Riots Probe

(Reuters) – Reuters journalist Adriano Machado testified on Tuesday earlier than a Brazilian congressional inquiry into riots within the capital Brasilia on Jan. 8, when his pictures for the information company confirmed vandals ransacking the within of the presidential palace.

Machado, summoned as a witness within the inquiry, gave a first-hand account of that Sunday afternoon, describing how a peaceable protest in opposition to the results of an October election devolved into the chaotic storming of Congress, the Supreme Court docket and the presidential workplaces. A whole lot of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro have been arrested over the riots, only a week after the inauguration of his rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazil’s Congress into the matter, which can ultimately produce a written report and will recommend that prosecutors deliver prison expenses.

The committee has referred to as former Bolsonaro aides to testify about an alleged conspiracy to overturn electoral outcomes which they’ve denied. Opposition lawmakers have sought to show up proof that the federal government was in charge for the rioting as a result of it failed to offer sufficient safety within the capital.

Machado was one of some photojournalists to take footage contained in the Planalto presidential palace as invaders smashed its doorways, home windows and furnishings. Some opposition lawmakers have centered on a portion of safety footage exhibiting him taking footage to recommend the scenes have been staged.

Reuters Information issued a public assertion on Tuesday reiterating its assist for Machado. The information company mentioned: “We stand by his protection, which was unbiased and within the public curiosity. Journalists should be free to report the information with out concern of harassment or hurt, wherever they’re.”

“I carried out my work appropriately, with integrity, independence and freedom from bias,” Machado instructed the committee, after replaying footage from closed-circuit cameras made public by the president’s safety advisers.

Within the sequence captured on safety footage, during which demonstrators pointed at him, encircled him and examined his digicam, Machado described the intimidation he confronted on the time. To diffuse tensions, he mentioned he complied with a demonstrator’s demand to delete some pictures after which shook the person’s outstretched hand.

“I don’t know that individual and, in that state of affairs, all I may do was reply to his greeting, contemplating the concern for my security,” Machado mentioned. “The photographs launched clarify that I used to be simply doing my job, taking footage.”

A number of opposition lawmakers who had referred to as for Machado to testify mentioned they understood he was there as a journalist doing his job. However some nonetheless referred to as him complicit within the vandalism.

“What we are able to clearly see is that you just assisted, influenced, participated in and even directed a scene damaging public patrimony,” mentioned opposition lawmaker Alexandre Ramagem, who ran Brazilian spy company ABIN throughout Bolsonaro’s presidency.

Different lawmakers dismissed that notion and questioned why Machado had been referred to as to testify.

“We’re right here at this time at an anti-climax, listening to a working journalist who was taking pictures,” mentioned pro-government lawmaker Rogerio Correia. “You know the way it appears to me? The world is in flames, you go there and take an image of the hearth – and also you’re held accountable since you took the image of the hearth, as an alternative of the one who set the world on hearth.”

Reuters printed greater than 100 pictures taken by Machado in and across the Planalto palace on Jan. 8.

(Modifying by Edward Tobin)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.