Knowing how to write source code and manage data sets are skills no longer reserved for nerds; data journalism is a growing field in reporting. But, if you're not part of the (big) group of journalists that aren't familiar with coding, you can still take advantage of some digital tools to lessen the work behind a story.
A Brazilian journalist was attacked and his camera was damaged while covering a protest on the streets of Teresina, in the state of Piauí on Jan. 19, reported TV Piauí. The reporter believes his attacker was a security guard with the Union of Urban Transport Businesses of Teresina.
Police in Uruguay's second largest city, Salto, opened an internal investigation on Jan. 19 to determine responsibility for an attack on the reporter Luis Díaz for the newspaper El Pueblo, reported the publication.
Human Rights Watch's 2012 World Report, released on Jan. 22, 2012, accuses the Venezuelan government of trying to control independent media and the judiciary in order to silence opposition voices, reported the website Uol.
Despite the Internet's essential role in journalism today, few reporters take the issue of cyber security seriously. Recent cyber attacks on journalists in Venezuela reinforce the fact that the Internet is not without its risks.
Brazilian journalists received death threats over e-mail after reporting on investigations by the State Public Ministry into family members and other people connected to the city's mayor, Silvio Félix, according to Canal Rio Claro. The reporters, in the city of Limeira, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, are from the newspapers Gazeta de Limeira and Jornal de Limeira, and TV Jornal.
In the Brazilian city of Aral Moreira, Mato Grosso do Sul, the creator of the website and print publication O Arrastão, journalist Geraldo Ferreira, was threatened online in the comments section of his website, reported MS Já on Monday, Jan. 16.
President Hugo Chávez's aggressive stance against the media in Venezuela has been characterized as "totalitarian and dictatorial" by the Inter American Press Association, which considers freedom of expression under threat in the South American country.
On Sunday, Jan. 15, drug users attacked photojournalists who were reporting in a central area of São Paulo, Brazil, known as "Crackland," reported the website Band News.
On Jan. 10, Bahia became the first Brazilian state to establish a Social Communication Council characterized as a "consultative and deliberative" body charged with creating a state communication plan, reported the newspaper A Tarde.