César Lévano, director of the Peruvian newspaper La Primera, and Arturo Belaúnde, president of the same newspaper, received funeral wreaths in the midst of a tense presidential election campaign, according to La República.
Journalist Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco, who reported on land conflicts with ranchers and alleged corruption in the northwestern city of Morazán, became at least the 12th journalist killed in the past 18 months in Honduras, the Associated Press reports.
A week after being arrested for allegedly slandering Attorney General Washington Pesántez in a blog post, Víctor Vizcaíno Luzuriaga was freed pending trial by a judge, El Diario and Radio Sucre report.
In Bolivia’s three largest cities, 92% of journalists say that freedom of expression is under threat in the county, according to May 8 survey of 200 journalists, FMBolivia reports.
Journalists at Radio Victoria in El Salvador received new death threats from an “extermination group” that has targeted the broadcaster since 2006, Prensa de Frente reports.
A group of nearly 100 individuals attacked a car driven by journalist Jaime Althaus, who works for the El Comercio-owned Canal N TV, Peru.com reports.
The votes still are being counted, but Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has claimed victory in a nationwide vote on 10 issues ranging from a bullfighting ban to the creation of a panel to regulate media content, CNN reports. Both the government and the opposition have suggested that there were irregularities during in the Saturday, May 7, vote, local media outlets report.
The Supreme Court found six former Navy officers guilty for their involvement in the abduction and execution of journalist Jaime Aldoney on Sept. 12, 1973, the day following the Chilean coup that installed a 17-year military dictatorship, AFP reports.
Colombian journalist Gonzalo Guillén’s computer and a hard disk with more than 15 years of work were stolen from his home in Bogotá towards the end of April, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) reports.
On May 3, media workers all over Latin American used World Press Freedom Day to denounce violence against reporters and media outlets and to demand protection, as new reports showed that the region has become one the most dangerous in the world to practice journalism. Press Freedom Day was also marred by the news that two journalists, one in Brazil and another in Peru, were shot to death in separate incidents.