After a TV crew was taken hostage in Paraná, a station invaded in Goiania and eight reporters beaten in São Paulo, on March 10, UNESCO and representatives of Brazilian media corporations delivered a letter to the country’s Minister of Social Communication calling for action to protect journalists and to ensure the media can work safely during the coverage of corruption investigations in the country.
Brazilian radio host João Valdecir de Borba, known as Valdão, was killed on March 10 while working in the studios of Rádio Difusora AM in São Jorge do Oeste, southwestern Paraná state.
The director of Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Caroní, David Natera Febres, was sentenced to four years in prison for crimes of defamation and injuria related to reports published in 2013 that denounced cases of corruption in a state mining company, reported nonprofit organization Espacio Público. Natera Febres was given 10 days to appeal the decision.
While covering organized crime in Latin America, Mexico-based British journalist Ioan Grillo identified parallels in the mode of operation of the largest criminal organizations in the region – whether in Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City or Kingston, Jamaica.
Every seven minutes, a complaint of violence against women is registered in Brazil, according to the Secretariat of Policies for Women. On International Women's Day, March 8, Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo published these reports via Twitter at the exact frequency that they occur: every seven minutes. The newspaper posted real complaints collected by the Center for Assistance to Women — Dial 180.
The number of fact-checking journalistic projects around the world has almost doubled between 2015 and 2016, according to an annual census of the Duke Reporters' Lab. According to the study, there are now 96 active fact-checking projects in 37 countries - in 2015, there were 64 projects, and 44 the previous year.
The Organic Telecommunications Law could change in Venezuela after José Gregorio Correa, a member of Congress for the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD by its initials in Spanish), presented a reform proposal before the Communications Media Commission of the National Assembly.
In the midst of efforts by civil society to improve dialogue between the LGBTQ community and media, the Ecuadorian government has determined that a cartoon by El Universo cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, known as Bonil, which appeared to comment on gender identity, is not discriminatory.
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice investigated cases of explosions in cars produced in the country after a Brazilian news site produced a report about them. A digital media startup launched in Venezuela, creating a new source of independent information for citizens in that country. In Argentina, a fact-checking organization can keep politicians and other public figures accountable by comparing their statements with reality.
Brazilian journalist Leonardo Sakamoto has received dozens of death threats after a fake interview with him was published by a local newspaper in Minas Gerais.