In an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, editor Julie Lopez of Plaza Pública in Guatemala speaks about how the online, non-profit news site, aimed at providing an alternative perspective "not subject to political and economic pressures," got started, launching on Feb. 22, 2011. See below the video of her interview (in Spanish).
Guatemalan journalist Claudia Mendez Arriaza, 35, is part of the 2012 class of Nieman Fellows. With 13 years of experience as a journalist -- she has worked as an editor and reporter at elPeriódico in Guatemala, and co-hosted the television show “A las 8:45” -- Mendez was named the 2012 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Latin American Nieman Fellow.
The Inter American Press Association's (IAPA) 67th General Assembly in Lima, Peru, ended with the organization issuing a series of resolutions and conclusions highlighting the fact that "attempts to silence the independent press" in Latin America have continued to mount in 2011, as evidenced by the rampant "physical violence, the murder of journalists and the impunity of these crimes, lawsuits, arbitrary arrests, verbal abuse, and the manipulation of government advertising to laws or restrictive bills."
At its 67th annual general assembly in Lima, Peru, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced the publication of its bilingual book “Stories and Sketches,” that recounts the experiences of journalists from throughout the Americas who have been awarded scholarships by the organization during the past 57 years.
After first going after Twitter for information about accounts of WikiLeaks supporters, now the U.S. government has obtained secret court orders forcing Google Inc. and the Internet provider Sonic.net to hand over the email addresses of anyone who has corresponded with WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum during the past two years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For suffering through attacks and threats for covering drug trafficking and organized crime, Mexican journalist Javier Arturo Valdez Cárdenas was named one of the winners of the Committee to Protect Journalists' 2011 International Press Freedom Awards.
For the second year in a row, the Argentine newspaper La Nación took top honors for a non-English, large site at the 2011 Online Journalism awards, reported NetNewsCheck.
Rafael Correa raged against the press during his speech at the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University in New York.
The leader behind the guerrilla Paraguayan People's Army (EPP in Spanish), who is serving a prison sentence for kidnapping, told the newspaper La Nación in a tape-recorded interview that journalists would become military targets if they acted as "informants" for the government.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) On Friday, Sept. 23, singled out Venezuela, Nicaragua and Argentina, condemning the countries for the recent legal and physical harassment journalists are suffering.