Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, an outspoken Chávez opponent and former presidential candidate, had been in the intelligence service's custody since March 22 after saying in a TV interview that Venezuela had become a haven for drug trafficking. He was released from house arrest Thursday (May 14) and ordered not to leave Venezuela or speak about the case with reporters, AFP reports. He must present himself to the court every 15 days.
President Sebastián Piñera agreed to sell his TV channel Chilevisión to local private equity investors Linzor Capital for $130 million, Dow Jones reports, citing Chilean news reports. (See Spanish version of this post.)
A court injunction prohibits the newspaper Diário do Grande ABC—which covers seven industrial cities in Greater São Paulo—from publishing articles about a city government's questionable disposal of school furniture that was said to be in good condition, the newspaper reports. The National Association of Newspapers calls the injunction prior censorship.
The Paraguayan Journalists' Union (SPP) says media workers in Ciudad del Este are subject to persecution, firings for political reasons, censorship, and threats, Última Hora reports. The union blames the city’s mayor and her supporters for the abuse.
The Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalina Botero, says that Latin America still faces major challenges to freedom of expression, despite advancements on political fronts. Botero reiterated the gravity of killings, attacks, threats, disappearances, and imprisonment of journalists, EFE reports.
Violence has made the border city of Ciudad Juárez one of the world's most dangerous cities and one of the riskiest places to practice journalism. The situation is such that several insurance companies will not sell life insurance to media workers, while others have added new surcharges to policies issued in the city, El Diario reports.
Journalists and civil society representatives convened for the “Second Platform for Action to Strengthen Freedom of Expression in Central America,” where they identified the principal challenges for exercising this right and listed initiatives to promote it throughout the region.
Human rights experts from the United Nations urged the government to take urgent measures to protect journalists in Honduras, where seven media workers have been assassinated since March 1, the AFP and EFE news agencies report.
Beto Ortiz, a well-known local media figure, was dismissed from Frecuencia Latina (Channel 2) for “editorial differences,” and his column in Perú21 has been discontinued. In an interview with Dedomedio magazine, the journalist claims that his departure from both media is a way to censor him for his "impertinence" in reporting irregularities in the transfer of ownership of América TV (Channel 4) to the media groups of El Comercio and La República during the administration of President Alejandro Toledo.
Keeping with recent trends, the federal government increased its spending on advertising from $100 million in 2008 to $210 million in 2009, a pivotal election year for the ruling party, La Nación reports.