By Maira Magro
Violence against journalists in Honduras and Mexico and government actions against the media in Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia were discussed this week at a U.S. House panel on press freedom in the Americas, The Dallas Morning News and AFP report.
The main country under discussion was Venezuela, which recently ordered the arrest of opposition TV owner Guillermo Zuloaga. The OAS press freedom monitor, Catalina Botero, called the situation “intolerable,” prompting criticism from Venezuela’s U.S. ambassador, who said the session was a “sad theater” for the “imperial, interventionist practice” of examining "sovereign and independent countries," AFP and EFE explain.
Committee members and presenters were also concerned about recent attacks on press freedom in the region including:
* The killings of more than 30 media workers in Mexico since 2006, which the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says "puts it among conflict-ravaged countries as Iraq and Somalia."
* 22 reporters and editors who are jailed in Cuba.
* “Governmental censorship” of the Brazilian daily O Estado de S. Paulo, which is not allowed to publish material on a criminal investigation of a senator’s son, O Estado reports.
* Unlawful espionage by the Colombian government on reporters.
For more information about the hearing, see the CPJ's testimony and statements made by committee chair Eliot Engle (D-NY) (PDF).
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
