Peruvian journalist Vicky Peláez, who was convicted of spying on the U.S. for Russian in June 2010, denied the charges and said she only pled guilty to win her freedom, Correo reports.
El Diario de Juárez, a major newspaper in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez – one of the world’s most violent cities – won the 2011 award for journalistic excellence, organized by the Mexico branch of PEN International.
Journalists and media outlets in the western Peruvian city of Chimbote have joined to protest the president of the Ancash region, who they say is persecuting and harassing reporters who have criticized his government, CPN Radio reports.
In a climate of increasing hostility to freedom of expression in Colombia, five journalists received death threats from a paramilitary group, which warned that the time had arrived to “exterminate and annihilate all those people and organizations that pose as human rights defenders,” La Vanguardia and El País Vallenato report.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) called on Supreme Court to rule on the ownership and frequency concession of a local TV station, Canal 8, that was taken over by the government, El Heraldo reports.
Magangué Hoy reports that a homemade bomb was thrown at one of its journalist’s house in the northern Colombian city of Magangué. No one was injured in the attack.
Radio Rama journalist Gildardo Mota was shot in the leg while covering a confrontation between police and professors who were protesting Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s visit to the southern city of Oaxaca, the Associated Press reports.
Award-winning Mexican radio host Carmen Aristegui will be back on the air by Feb. 21, MVS Radio announced, two weeks after having fired the journalist for commenting on allegations that President Felipe Calderón was an alcoholic, the BBC reports.
After controversy sparked by a language in a bill that created crimes of “media violence," referring to content that disparages or satirizes women, the Supreme Court decided to withdraw the bill, barely more than a week after it was originally submitted to the National Assembly, EFE and La Prensa report.
The controversial decision to sack an award-winning Mexican radio host for commenting on allegations that President Felipe Calderón is an alcoholic has prompted protests and opened a debate on the relationship between concentrated media ownership and politically-motivated censorship.