By William Schomberg
LONDON (Reuters) – One year after British reporter Dom Phillips was murdered in Brazil while working on a book about saving the Amazon rain forest, a group of journalists aims to complete the project, his family and former colleagues said on Thursday.
“How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know” is due to be published by Manilla Press, an imprint of publisher Bonnier Books, subject to fund-raising to allow completion of the remaining work.
Phillips – a freelance journalist who wrote for the Guardian, the Washington Post and other media – had completed only half the book when he was killed alongside Bruno Pereira, an expert on indigenous issues, near Brazil’s border with Peru. Brazilian police have said the alleged leader of a local gang planned the murders because Pereira posed a threat to its illegal fishing operation.
Among the writers who will help to finish the work are Jon Lee Anderson who writes for the New Yorker, Tom Phillips and Jonathan Watts who work for the Guardian, and Andrew Fishman, president of the Intercept Brasil, as well as Brazilian writers.
They will use notes and transcriptions of interviews conducted by Dom Phillips and conduct their own research trips to the Amazon region to complete the missing chapters.
Other journalists who also have experience covering issues related to the Amazon will fact-check and proofread the draft chapters, Watts said.
“Dom was killed for this book,” he said. “The least we can do is finish the task to which he had devoted the latter part of his life. He may be gone, but he won’t be silenced.”
Four people have been charged with double homicide and concealment of corpses.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by David Gregorio)
