Journalists who cover environmental degradation are increasingly subject to threats and attacks, according to a new Reporters without Borders investigative report, “High-Risk Subjects: Deforestation and Pollution” (PDF file). Its publication is timed to coincide with World Environment Day (June 5).
The government's new so-called "situation agency" has the power to suppress "any information" deemed of national interest and will likely be seen as a further restriction by the Chávez administration of anti-government news, before legislative elections on Sept. 26, AFP reports.
It appears that the killing of reporter David Meza Montesinos will not go unpunished. After weeks of investigations, the attorney general has issued an arrest order against four people accused of killing the TV and radio reporter last March, Radio América and El Heraldo report.
Mexico's interior minister, Fernando Gómez Mont, demanded the press act responsibly, insisting that the violence prevailing in the country is caused by information spread by the media, El Universal and El Economista report.
A disagreement over a TV signal concession has ended President Sebastián Piñera’s attempt to sell Chilevisión to a domestic investment firm for $130 million, La Tercera and EFE report. (See this Reuters article in English.)
José Jordy Veras Rodríguez, an attorney who appears regularly on the "Mañana Boreal" morning TV program on the privately owned Channel 25, was shot when he arrived at the station’s parking lot this week in Santiago de los Caballeros, the country’s second largest city. He was recovering in a local hospital, with heavily armed guards stationed outside the room, Listín Diario and El Nacional report. (See this report in English by Reporters Without Borders.)
Something is wrong with access to information if the body responsible for overseeing the law that protects information access in a country asks the government to clearly state that it doesn't intend to impede transparency. This is what has happened in Mexico, where the Federal Institute of Information Access (IFAI) called on the Secretary of Government to ratify that lack of transparency and accountability will not be reinstated, reported El Universal and La Jornada.
On the recent third anniversary of the forced closure of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), whose editorial line opposed President Hugo Chávez, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) released a video of Marcel Granier, RCTV’s general manager, discussing attacks by the government against private media.
At a time when independent journalists continue to fear state police harassment for publishing criticisms of the government, and others remain in prison for their work, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, Granma, appears to be increasingly willing to air critical ideas. In recent months, the paper – Cuba’s largest – has published letters to the editor critical of the country’s economic policies, Juan Tamayo writes for The Miami Herald.
Defense Minister Rubén Saavedra says the military is ready to comply with a Supreme Court order to declassify documents from the military dictatorship led by General Luis García Meza (1980-1981), AFP reports.