Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court has ruled that intelligence officials broke the law when they tapped into a journalist’s telephone line, the Tico Times reported.
The first year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency was the most violent year for Mexican journalists since 2007, according to freedom of the press organization Article 19’s annual report published on Tuesday, March 18.
On February 12th, violent protests in Caracas led to the deaths of three people. Eyewitnesses sent video footage and photographs to the newspaper Ultimas Noticias, which then published them online. The footage shows both security forces in uniform and people dressed in civilian clothing opening fire on protesters, quite a different account than the one presented by official media.
After a nine-month hiatus, the English-language news site The Nicaragua Dispatch has relaunched as Central America’s first online hub for community bloggers.
International organizations are condemning the increased government harassment of two Honduran journalists, Julio Ernesto Alvarado and Dina Meza, in recent months.
The United States State Department published on Thursday their annual report on human rights, where it strongly criticized the restrictions on press freedoms and freedom of expression in Venezuela and Ecuador. In the midst of a political crisis in Venezuela, the report highlighted that the Venezuelan government “continued taking actions to impede on freedom of expression and restrict press freedoms.”
A Colombian journalist and his work partner were treated violently by the National Guard of Venezuela while covering protests on Feb. 14, reported the digital newspaper Infobae.
Journalists from numerous news media took to the streets in more than 20 Mexican cities on Sunday, Feb. 23, protesting the dangerous conditions faced by the press in the country and especially in the state of Veracruz, news magazine Proceso reported. The main protest took place around the Angel of Independence Monument in Mexico City, where portraits of the 88 journalists who have been killed since 2000 were distributed among protesters.
Nicolás Maduro’s government continues to repress the news media in Venezuela. A week after NTN24’s signal was cut mid-transmission and work permits for CNN journalists were revoked, Twitter confirmed to BBC Mundo that the images of the protests published through its service are being blocked in Venezuela.
News organization Grupo Editorial Noroeste, from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, demanded on Feb. 25 protection from federal agencies for journalists who were threatened for reporting stories on recently arrested drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, reported Noroeste.