Reuters journalist Adriano Machado testified on Tuesday before a Brazilian congressional inquiry into riots in the capital Brasilia on Jan. 8, when his photographs for the news agency showed vandals ransacking the inside of the presidential palace.
Machado, summoned as a witness in the inquiry, gave a first-hand account of that Sunday afternoon, describing how a peaceful protest against the result of an October election devolved into the chaotic storming of Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential offices. Hundreds of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro were arrested over the riots, just a week after the inauguration of his rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Brazil’s Congress into the matter, which will eventually produce a written report and may suggest that prosecutors bring criminal charges.
The committee has called former Bolsonaro aides to testify about an alleged conspiracy to overturn electoral results which they have denied. Opposition lawmakers have sought to turn up evidence that the government was to blame for the rioting because it failed to provide adequate security in the capital.
Machado was one of a few photojournalists to take pictures inside the Planalto presidential palace as invaders smashed its doors, windows and furnishings. Some opposition lawmakers have focused on a portion of security footage showing him taking pictures to suggest the scenes were staged.
Reuters News issued a public statement on Tuesday reiterating its support for Machado. The news agency said: “We stand by his coverage, which was unbiased and in the public interest. Journalists must be free to report the news without fear of harassment or harm, wherever they are.”
“I carried out my work correctly, with integrity, independence and freedom from bias,” Machado told the committee, after replaying footage from closed-circuit cameras made public by the president’s security advisers.
In the sequence captured on security footage, in which demonstrators pointed at him, encircled him and examined his camera, Machado described the intimidation he faced at the time. To diffuse tensions, he said he complied with a demonstrator’s demand to delete some photographs and then shook the man’s outstretched hand.
“I don’t know that person and, in that situation, all I could do was respond to his greeting, considering the fear for my safety,” Machado said. “The images released make clear that I was just doing my job, taking pictures.”
Several opposition lawmakers who had called for Machado to testify said they understood he was there as a journalist doing his job. But some still called him complicit in the vandalism.
“What we can clearly see is that you assisted, influenced, participated in and even directed a scene damaging public patrimony,” said opposition lawmaker Alexandre Ramagem, who ran Brazilian spy agency ABIN during Bolsonaro’s presidency.
Other lawmakers dismissed that notion and questioned why Machado had been called to testify.
“We’re here today at an anti-climax, listening to a working journalist who was taking photographs,” said pro-government lawmaker Rogerio Correia. “You know how it looks to me? The world is in flames, you go there and take a picture of the fire – and you’re held responsible because you took the picture of the fire, instead of the one who set the world on fire.”
Reuters published more than 100 photographs taken by Machado in and around the Planalto palace on Jan. 8.
(Editing by Edward Tobin)