El Salvador’s Human Rights ombudsman called on the police and Attorney General to open an investigation into the series of threats received by journalists at Radio Victoria, in the central department of Cabañas, La Prensa Gráfica reports.
As violence from the bloody drug war increases and the dead fill morgues and line mass graves in Mexico, two journalists have each launched books that seek to describe the horrors of the conflict and unravel the corruption that is hidden behind it.
A Venezuelan court sentenced Francisco Contreras to 15 years in prison for his role in the April 2010 kidnapping of Globovisión journalist Luis Núñez, El Universal reports.
Dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas – famous worldwide for hunger striking for 135-days before Cuban released more than 50 political prisoners – was arrested for the second time in less than 24 hours for demonstrating in front of the jail where other dissidents were still being held, Reuters reports. He was freed after five hours, The Associated Press reports.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo announced that he had received an offer from the U.S. government to help investigate the deaths of ten journalists who were killed in 2010, EFE reports.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) announced that in the coming weeks it will present a report to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) about press freedom violations in the country, AFP reports. In recent months, two newspapers have alleged persecution at the hands of President Daniel Ortega, while an opposition TV network went off the the air several days ago.
Dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas and 15 others were arrested on Jan. 26 in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, EFE and AFP report. They were released without being charged, but ABC and El País report that they were given a “strong warning” for having engaged in civil disobedience.
A Panamericana Television crew was attacked by a group of thirty people while they covered a protest against a Lima law firm, headed by Orellana Rengifo, with alleged links to organized crime, La República reports. Cameraman Juan Carlos Vera’s right eye was injured by a rock and journalist Renzo Santana had multiple facial wounds, El Comercio explains.
El Financiero newspaper reports that Costa Rica’s Guild of Journalists (Colper) and the Institute for Press and Freedom of Expression (IPLEX) have joined with the paper in a suit against the Ministry of Labor for refusing to release data about firms that fail to comply with minimum wage laws.
Cuban journalist Yoani Sánchez, author of the Generation Y blog, won the “iNetworks” (iRedes) prize for the “courage and impact” of her work, ABC and El Mundo report.