Radio journalist Nelson Hernández was stabbed to death in the wee hours Wednesday, June 8, in Izalco, west of the capital of El Salvador, as he was headed to work at the radio station SKY, reported El Universal.
On June 8, less than two weeks after assailants attempted to burn TV director Mario Esteban López alive, he received threats telling him he could be killed if he stayed in the Ecuador-Colombia border city of Ipiales, El Observador reports.
Inspired by a common complaint that some topics journalists are ordered to cover go against their personal ethics, the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) has proposed a “conscience clause” to give them legal recourse to refuse, La Voz reports.
The wave of violence against journalists in Mexico appears to have no end. Even as Mexican media outlets on June 9 reported the kidnapping of journalist Marco Antonio López Ortiz, information chief for the newspaper Novedades Acapulco in the state of Veracruz, journalists remained on alert because of the beating journalist Carlos de Jesús Rodríguez, director of the news site Gobernantes.com, suffered while in jail.
A group of demonstrators threatened and beat three Mexican journalists from the newspaper Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca after invading the newspaper's offices in the city of Oaxaca, in Southeastern Mexico, and painting the newspaper's facade with anti-press slogans, reported the National Center of Social Communication (CENCOS).
Journalist Vasni Vásquez, who was held for two months for alleged involvement in a kidnapping, denounced the authorities’ negligence and failure to thoroughly investigate the case, Cerigua reports.
Reporters Without Borders and the World Association of Community Radios for Latin America and the Caribbean (AMARC-ALC in Spanish) expressed their concern and the readmittance without conditions of Honduras to the Organization of American States (OAS), from which the country has been suspended after the June 2009 coup, reported Hora Cero.
Journalist Eduardo Villatoro says he received telephoned death threats for his reports on mining and gas plants on the coasts of Guatemala, Cerigua reports via IFEX. Callers told the journalist he could be killed for being an enemy of progress and discouraging foreign investment.
An Argentine journalist denounced the attempted kidnapping of his son after receiving various threats related to his work, reported Análisis. Sergio Schneider, editor in chief at the newspaper Norte in Resistencia, in the province of Chaco, in northeastern Argentina, filed a complaint May 27, in which he called the attempted kidnapping part of a plan to hurt his family because of his journalist work, added Norte.
Dominican TV journalist José Agustín Silvestre de los Santos, who is facing a defamation trial after accusing a prosecutor of supposed ties with drugtrafficking, was set free after six days in jail and after posting a $3,800 bail, reported Reporters Without Borders (RSF). However, Silvestre de los Santos, the host of the television program "The Voice of Truth" for the regional channel Cana TV in the Dominican Republic, still must appear before authorities in 30 days for the trial against him to continue.