The Intercept Threatened

We wanted to make sure you didn't miss this important note from Glenn Greenwald about the Brazilian government's threats against him and the team that’s reporting on government corruption. When Brazil’s Federal Police arrested four people and accused them of hacking the communications of government officials and providing some of that content to The Intercept, many of our readers asked: What effect will this have on our continued reporting on this secret archive? The answer, in one word: None. The Intercept has never let powerful governments bully us into silence.And as the situation here in Brazil heats up, we have no intention of backing down. Will you be the next person to support our fierce, adversarial journalism?  BECOME A MEMBER → The documents we received revealed serious, systematic, and sustained improprieties by the very same judicial officials who cast themselves as apolitical crusaders when they imprisoned former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — and thereby paved the way for the election of far-right authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro. As the revelations of corruption grew, these officials resorted to the usual tactics employed by governments everywhere: They tried to distract attention from their own misconduct by attacking the journalists who revealed their wrongdoing. President Bolsonaro himself has publicly threatened me with prison and accused me of marrying a Brazilian citizen and adopting Brazilian children in order to avoid deportation. (That would’ve been quite a long game on my part: I’ve been married for 14 years.) The risk is so dire that on Wednesday, a minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court issued a ruling barring the Bolsonaro administration and Justice Minister Sergio Moro from investigating The Intercept and me for doing our jobs as journalists. This was a great victory for press freedom in Brazil. However, we know the fight has only just begun. Our team of young independent journalists at The Intercept Brasil is doing heroic and complex reporting in the face of multiple types of threats with great courage and even greater professionalism. It’s been amazing and inspiring to watch this team in action, even as the Bolsonaro government tries to criminalize their reporting. But we’ve also had to make expensive investments in their digital, physical, and legal safety to ensure they can continue doing their work in the months ahead. The Intercept is a nonprofit news organization, which means you are our most important stakeholder. Your donation keeps our fierce independent reporting alive and helps us challenge far-right authoritarian leaders like Jair Bolsonaro. We’re counting on our readers to make sure we can continue this fearless coverage. Support our team in this critical moment. Donate to The Intercept.  BECOME A MEMBER → Bolsonaro poses a severe threat not just to human rights within Brazil, but also internationally through his alliances with some of the world’s most reactionary regimes. His brazen promises to bulldoze key policies that protect the Amazon literally puts the fate of the planet at risk. Since we began regularly reporting on Brazil in 2016, our audience and reach have exploded. Some of the most widely read articles in The Intercept’s history have been in Portuguese, and leading Brazilian political figures now turn to us for their most important interviews. They know the value and impact of the unique platform we’ve built. This has happened because the in-depth reporting we do is extremely rare in Brazil, where the media landscape is dominated by large conglomerates — and independent outlets are few and far between. We have been able to apply the same adversarial, intrepid approach to investigative journalism that we use in the U.S. to Brazil, where, with the election of a genuine and frightening tyrant, it is needed now more than ever. Our team here is committed to continue reporting this story because it’s in the Brazilian public interest. But I’m hoping you’ll support our work because it’s sending such a powerful warning signal to far-right authoritarian governments across the globe. BECOME A MEMBER →

Glenn Greenwald Co-founding Editor of The Intercept