Press freedom organizations and journalist unions have united to express their concern for the future of press freedom in Ecuador because of the tension between the government and the media, which has intensified in recent months after lawsuits President Rafael Correa has filed against reporters and media owners.
Héctor Rodríguez, the news director for La Veterana radio in the southeastern Colombian city of Popayán, escaped a May 26 attempted shooting unharmed, El País reports.
The editor-in-chief of La Tribuna newspaper, Manuel Acosta Medina, was hospitalized after being shot six times May 23 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the Associated Press reports. The attack was the third in less than two weeks, taking place three days after a TV owner was gunned down in front of his station and 13 days after a reporter who covered local land conflicts was killed.
The Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela (CAIV) has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office against Radio Nacional Venezuela (RNV) and a media worker for broadcasting a message it called “clearly anti-Semitic,” TalCualDigital reports.
Alleged members of Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s biggest criminal organizations, were arrested while posting a banner threatening the press in the western Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango, Observador Global reports.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has said several existing and proposed laws in Bolivia could reduce press freedom in the country.
Just days after announcing a national dialogue on freedom of expression in response to increasing reports of incidents against the press by the authorities, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli accused media owners of having a "shadowy agenda," TVN Noticias reports.
Veteran journalist Jineth Bedoya, currently an editor for El Tiempo newspaper, has filed a claim against the Colombian government at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for failing to fully investigate the kidnapping and sexual assault she suffered in 2000, The Associated Press reports.
An unidentified cameraman for a local broadcaster in the northern Mexican state of Durango was filming a May 23 car accident when he was shot three times by gunmen who attacked police responding to the incident, Milenio reports.
Reporters from Vive TV told prosecutors they were attacked by allies of Henri Falcón, the governor of the northeastern Venezuelan state of Lara, while covering a protest against the state’s water utility company, Hidrolara, Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV) reports.