On the one hand, there are reporters that are eager to tease out available data and extract valuable information about public administration. On the other hand, there are technology enthusiasts that are trying to find ways to build mapping and information visualization tools that can circulate on the world web. What happens when you put these two groups together? Searching for an answer, the Brazilian newspaper Estado de S. Paulo will launch the first hacker marathon, or "Hackathon," organized by a news outlet in Brazil
A report published by the Interacting Advertising Bureau, an association that brings together the main web sites and Internet portals in Brazil, said that the Internet has surpassed newspapers and has become the second-most preferred medium for advertising investments in Brazil during the first quarter of the 2012 year, reported iG.
The same project that caused Brazilian journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto to be sentenced to pay moral damages also made him the winner of the 34th edition of the Vladimir Herzog Amnesty and Human Rights Award, reported the news site Ambiente Já. His journalistic work in the Amazon has led to more than 33 lawsuits against him, as well as many awards, such as four Esso awards, which are the most important awards for journalism in Brazil.
On Wednesday, June 6, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the threats and attacks against Venezuelan journalists and news media, reported the newspaper El Universal.
The headquarters of the Venezuelan newspaper Qué Pasa was attacked with a grenade on May 28. No one was hurt during the attack, however the building suffered damages, reported the news site Clases de Periodismo, on Monday, June 4.
A day after the organization Amnesty International complained in its annual report about freedom of press restrictions in Venezuela, the U.S. government said that the Hugo Chavez administration has been persecuting the Venezuelan press, in a Human Rights report published on Thursday, May 24, reported the portal Terra.
On Friday, May 25, a Brazilian journalist was arrested in Syria, and then let free by local authorities shortly after the arrest, according to the news agency EFE.
Brazilians can now count on an Information Access Law to obtain data and non-secret government documents without having to provide justification for their information requests. The information access law went into effect on Wednesday, May 16, making Brazil one of 91 countries with freedom of informationlaws, reported ABC News and the newspaper Zero Hora. Also, the decree that regulates this law was signed by President Dilma Rousseff.
There is already enough public data available to follow the destruction process of the largest rainforest in the world, but what is missing is a way to aggregate all of the available information and make it easier for the public to understand what is happening to the Amazon. As such, Brazilian journalist Gustavo Faleiros, winner of the Knight International Journalism Fellowship, a scholarship program led by the International Center For Journalists (ICFJ), has designed a project to improve the free flow of information and
On Monday, May 7, in an article published by the Argentine newspaper Clarin, journalist Daniel Santoro said that he was victim of a plot to discredit him created by the Argentine Intelligence Agency (SIDE in Spanish).