Updated

The National Journalists' Association of Brazil says it will launch an investigation into the persecution of journalists during the 1965-1985 military dictatorship.

Association's president Celso Schroder said Wednesday that the group's Memory, Truth and Justice Commission will start work in January.

He says the commission will focus on cases of censorship and the arrest, torture, death and disappearance of journalists during the military regime.

Schroder did not want to speculate on how many cases of violence against journalists may be uncovered, but said: "I am sure we will find many more than the approximately 20 we know of."

The journalists' association will deliver its report to the official Truth Commission investigating human rights abuses committed by Brazil's former military government.