Vladimir Herzog Award announces special awards recipients of 2024
Flávia Oliveira, Gizele Martins, and Rede Wayuri de Comunicadores Indígenas do Rio Negro (The Wayuri Network of Rio Negro Indigenous Communicators) will receive the Special Vladimir Herzog Award of 2024 in a formal ceremony on October 29th, in São Paulo
The organizing committee of the Vladimir Herzog Journalistic Award for Amnesty and Human Rights has defined the tribute and special awards protocol of its 46th edition. The appointed recipients of the Special Award are Flávia Oliveira, Gizele Martins, and Rede Wayuri de Comunicadores Indígenas do Rio Negro (The Wayuri Network of Rio Negro Indigenous Communicators).
These choices were based on relevant contributions to the current landscape of Brazilian journalism, with progress in the acknowledgment of diversity, inclusion, plural voices and causes, and shared protagonism when defending the right to information and democratizing access to communication.
Flávia Oliveira is a writer for the O Globo newspaper and a radio commentator at the Globo News and Rádio CBN broadcasting stations. She has worked on the “Angu de Grilo” podcast with her daughter, Isabela Reis, also a journalist. Recipient of the Esso award (2001) in the category of Best Contribution to the Press with the series of reports “Retratos do Rio” (Portraits of the River, in a free translation). In 2003, she received the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize of the United Nations Correspondents Association for a series of stories about human development together with Luciana Rodrigues. In the same year, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) awarded her the Journalism for Tolerance Prize for her work in the “A Cor do Brasil” (The Color of Brazil) supplement of the O Globo newspaper. In 2023, the Brazilian government awarded her the rank of Officer of the Order of Rio Branco.
Gizele Martins is a journalist, community communicator and researcher. Master’s degree in Education, Culture and Communication in Urban Outskirts (UERJ). PhD student in Communication (ECO/UFRJ). Author of the book “Militarização e censura – a luta por liberdade de expressão na Favela da Maré” (Militarization and censorship – the struggle for freedom of expression in the Maré Favela, in a free translation) (2019), articulator of Rede de Proteção de Jornalistas e Comunicadoras/es (Journalist and Communicator Protection Network) and works since 2020 in the Maré Mobilization Front. Member of the Coalizão de Mídias Periféricas, Faveladas, Quilombolas e Indígenas (Coalition of Peripheral, Favela, Quilombola and Indigenous Media) – formed in 2023 by 11 media organizations. The articulation involves local and national political advocacy, knowledge exchanges and collective productions.
Rede Wayuri de Comunicadores Indígenas do Rio Negro (the Wayuri Network of Rio Negro Indigenous Communicators) is a popular media collective made up of approximately 30 communicators of the Baré, Baniwa, Desana, Tariana, Tuyuka, Piratapuia, Tukano, Wanano, Hup’dah, Yanomami, and Yeba Masã ethnicities. Created in 2017, the network produces weekly news to be distributed to the 750 indigenous communities of the demarcated lands from the lower to the upper course of the Rio Negro, in the municipalities of Barcelos, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, and São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in the state of Amazonas. The Wayuri Network is connected to the Foirn (Brazilian acronym for the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Rio Negro), founded in 1987 to protect the territorial and cultural rights of the 23 peoples of the Rio Negro.
Calendar for the 46th Edition
This year, the Herzog Award received 601 applications, 222 of which in text; 144 in video; 60 in audio; 56 in multimedia; 51 in photography; 50 in art and 18 in journalistic books. A group of 49 guests makes up the jury responsible for selecting the shortlisted participants in one of the seven awards categories.
On October 10th, starting at 02:00 p.m., the organizing committee reconvenes, this time to define the winners. As has happened in the last twelve years, the choice is made official in a public session, broadcast live on YouTube. The award ceremony will take place on October 29th, from 08:00 p.m. to 09:30 p.m. at Tucarena, in São Paulo, preceded by the 13th Roundtable Discussion with the Winners, from 02:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m., also at Tucarena.
Organizing Committee
Last year, in the historic 45th-anniversary edition, the award was organized by Instituto Prêmio Vladimir Herzog, a civil association of private law, non-profit and with no political-partisan affiliation, founded in November 2022 in São Paulo.
The entity includes 17 civil society institutions, in addition to the Herzog family: the Brazilian Press Association (ABI); the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association (ABRAJI); Artigo 19; the Peace and Justice Commission of the São Paulo Archidocese; Conectas Direitos Humanos; the College of Communication and Arts of Universidade de São Paulo (ECA/USP); the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ); Geledés; the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB National); Instituto Vladimir Herzog; the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA); the Brazilian Bar Association – São Paulo Chapter; the Police Ombudsman of the São Paulo State Police; the Periferia em Movimento Collective; the Professional Journalists’ Union of the State of São Paulo; the Brazilian Society of Interdisciplinary Communication Studies (Intercom) and the Brazilian Writers’ Union (UBE).
Ever since its first edition, held in 1979, the award has celebrated the life and work of journalist Vladimir Herzog, tortured and murdered by the civilian-military dictatorship on October 25th, 1975, within the facilities of DOI-CODI (Department of Information Operations – Center for Internal Defense Operations), in São Paulo.
