The mayor of the Brazilian city Barra dos Bugres (in Mato Grosso) grabbed a reporter by the neck when she was trying to interview him for the TV channel Independência, which is affiliated with the station Record, on Thursday, May 24, reported the newspaper O Dia. The attack happened during a City Council event that took place in a stadium of that city.
As a consequence of complaints made to the Journalists Association of La Paz by a former commander of the National Police of Bolivia, a Bolivian journalist denied being guilty of extortion and said that he was threatened, reported the newspaper La Razón.
In a report by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. heavily criticized the Argentine government for limiting freedom of press in the country, and said that there is too much violence against the press and opposition journalists, accusing the government for being responsible for several measures that do not allow for freedom of expression in Argentina, reported the newspaper Clarín.
The Venezuelan Public Prosecutor initiated an investigation into the attacks against official media journalists from the National Public Media (SNMP in Spanish), on Thursday, May 24, reported El Universal. The investigation was announced by Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz on the Venezuelan National Radio station's Thursday show.
In what appears to be a measure to silence the Ecuadorian press, President Rafael Correa asked for Ecuadorian citizens to boycott the press, reported the news agency AFP.
Columbia University in the United States and the School of Advertising and Marketing (ESPM in Portuguese) in Brazil worked in collaboration to launch the Journalism Magazine of the ESPM, the Brazilian version of the influential Columbia Journalism Review, reported the portal Meio e Mensagem. The magazine, to be published every trimester, started circulating at the beginning of May.
Tangled in an everlasting battle against the Ecuadorian press, the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa attacked and discredited the work of journalists once again during an interview with the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, in the program “The World Tomorrow,” on Tuesday, May 22, reported the news outlet Europa Press.
In the annual Amnesty International 2012 report presented in London on Wednesday, May 23, the group said that there "were new restrictions" to freedom of expression in Venezuela, with journalists facing fines and myriad accusations, reported the newspaper El Universal and the news agency EFE.
During the last day of the 10th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, held May 20-22, the participants gathered into four groups to discuss different and important topics about this year's theme: "Security and Protection for Journalists, Blogger, and Citizen Journalists."
On the second day of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas’ 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, a panel of experts spoke on the role of state protection mechanisms for journalists in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.