Brazil’s National Journalists Federation Joins Chinese Network

On July 19, 2025, Brazil’s National Federation of Journalists, or FENAJ, the chief labor and professional organization representing journalist unions and media workers across the country, received a certificate recognizing it as an “International Home of Journalists” (國際記者之家) at the 2025 Belt and Road Journalists Forum in Ganzhou, in China’s Jiangxi province. The International Home of Journalists is an initiative of the All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, an ostensible professional media association that works as a key part of China’s press control apparatus. In its own declarations, the ACJA openly pledges support for the principle of the Chinese Communist Party managing the media (黨管媒體), and for the key censorship principle of “correct public opinion guidance” (正確輿論導向). The outlet that carried the report, Forum Macao (中國—葡語國家經貿合作論壇), is a Macau-based platform backed by the Chinese government. The report noted that the Brazilian Press Association had received the same recognition in 2024. The title commits FENAJ to hosting foreign journalists from the Belt and Road Journalists Network (一帶一路記者組織合作平台) who visit or work in Brazil. FENAJ President Samira de Castro said the recognition highlighted journalists’ unity in the face of digital challenges and threats to press freedom, a framing that sits uneasily with the program’s role in China’s press control apparatus. FENAJ was one of 11 organizations to receive certificates at the forum, which also launched a volunteer program under the initiative. FENAJ had already signed a 2018 agreement with the ACJA to exchange news about the Belt and Road Initiative and to jointly run seminars, interviews and awards.