UBC students helped get charges laid in Brazilian murder
Posted July 21, 2012 4:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – UBC journalism students are being credited with helping get charges laid in a Brazilian murder investigation.
Eighteen people have now been linked to the killing of a tribal chief.
Student Calyn Shaw says they went to southern Brazil in February, to look into the death of Nisio Gomes.
Their story was then picked up by the New York Times in June, and charges followed as focus on the story grew.
“All of a sudden you have international attention on it and those involved say ‘we really need to do something about this, this can’t be like all the incidents in the past where we kind of swept it under the rug, or spend six years pretending to work towards some type of prosecution,'” he explains.
Shaw says the Brazilian government made it difficult to get the story out, and students were arrested during their visits. However, the pay-off was rewarding.
“There are a ton of under-reported issues around the world that need to be told and you if you can make the time and the space in your journalism and you’re reporting to find these stories and pursue them, that obviously we can have an impact and make a difference,” he says.
