Following the purchase of 54% of the shares of the printing and marketing branch of Empresa Periodística Nacional S.A. ( Epensa in Spanish), publishing company El Comercio has become the largest media owner in the country. Will the move have an impact on journalism and freedom of expression in Peru?
Bolivian President Evo Morales promulgated a new Telecommunications, Information Technology and Communication Law that establishes new rules for the distribution of radio and television frequencies.
The Mexican Attorney General's (PGR in Spanish) special prosecutor Gustavo Salas Chávez said more journalists were killed in Northern Mexico than anywhere else in the country, according to the newspaper Vanguardia.
The Bolivian district attorney said suicide was the cause of death for journalist David Niño de Guzmán, news editor for Agencia de Noticias Fides (ANF), reported AFP.
A court in Havana, Cuba, sentenced ex-journalist and businessman Sebastián Martínez Ferraté to seven years in prison for the corruption of minors, reported AFP.
Poderopedia, a way to look for and spread information about who has the power in Chile, has received $200,000 as one of the 16 winning projects of the Knight News Challenge 2011. Created by journalist Miguel Paz, assistant editor of El Mostrador, and by web developer Héctor Vergara, Poderopedia aims to be a database that will serve as a map of Chilean elites. The website will investigate and illustrate the connections among people, companies and institutions with the end goal of shedding light on any possible conflicts
The School of Journalism and Social Communication at the National University of La Plata in Argentina bestowed the Rodolfo Walsh journalism prize on the president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo association, Hebe Pastor de Bonafin, reported La Nación. This is the same award that in March was given to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, prompting criticism.
On June 14, when Ernesto Che Guevara would have turned 83, his widow, Aleida March, decided to release the previously unpublished journals the Argentine revolutionary wrote about the Cuban revolution, reported UPI. The journals are part of a series of tributes to his journalistic work, in particular his work for the magazine Olive Green, which he founded, according to Prensa Libre.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa congratulated Ollanta Humala on being elected the next president of Peru and warned him of future problems he may face due to the country’s “corrupt press,” EFE reports. “I hope that I am wrong but they will see how Peru’s corrupt press is not going to leave you alone,” Correa said. He also questioned why international journalism organizations like the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) have not discussed allegations that the country’s biggest media companies were biasi
In the midst of a tense relationship between President Cristina Fernández and the country’s media, the concept of “militant journalism” is a constant theme of debate in Argentina. El Diario 24 columnist Adrián Carlos Corbella wonders whether there is journalism that escapes this label and questions the demonization of “militant” – i.e. openly ideological – journalists by those who self-identify as “independent.”