As Brazil looks for ways to strengthen its fight against human trafficking and modern slavery, the Thomson Reuters Foundation held a training course for journalists, to better prepare them to cover those issues. Sponsored by the C&A Foundation, the course was attended by 15 journalists from all over the country. Held from June 3-7 in Sao Paulo, it was run by journalist Ricardo Garcia and our Brazil correspondent Fabio Teixeira.
The group included reporters from leading news organizations, like Folha de Sao Paulo, O Globo, El Pais, and Agencia Brasil, as well as freelancers that write for a wide range of publications.
Over the course, journalists learned about the legal framework that supports Brazil's effort to curb modern slavery, and the main actors responsible for executing Brazil's policies. Some misconceptions and myths about the issue were also untangled.
The main databases that document and track slavery cases were shown, and journalists were taught how to use them to look for trends and stories.
Guest speakers, some of them leading players in the effort to curb modern slavery, joined the course to share their expertise. Among them were Leonardo Sakamoto, director of the anti-slavery NGO Reporter Brasil, Caio Borges and Julia Cunha Cruz, from NGO Conectas Direitos Humanos, and Barry Michael Wolf - who has more than a decade of experience dealing with trafficking victims.
One of the most important panels featured labor inspectors from Brazil's government, Magno Riga and Andre Roston. They spoke about the leading role labor inspectors have in investigating labor violations, about Brazil's "dirty list" of employers that engaged in modern slavery, and about their own experience going on raids to rescue victims.
The Brazilian course was one of a series of courses on covering migration and trafficking and slavery that are being run around the world this year by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in partnership with the C&A Foundation. To find out more about our media development and training programmes, click here.
To find out more about our media development and training programmes, click here.
