At the start of 2012, media organizations and news sites are looking back at the top stories of 2011 (see this CNN list for a good run-down), suggesting new year's resolutions for newsrooms, and even offering a few trends that will "reshape digital news in 2012," as Poynter did.
Journalists have joined the growing list of groups opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration by the U.S. congress, according to the Washington Post.
Warning of a "progressive loss of fundamental rights" in Ecuador, the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, during its half-yearly meeting Dec. 9 in Miami, issued a series of resolutions calling on the administration of President Rafael Correa to respect free speech and press freedom.
For the first time in 15 years, Cuba did not appear on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) census of jailed journalists, that organization reported Thursday, Dec. 8.
On Thursday, Dec. 1, WikiLeaks published its latest document trove: more than 287 files related to 160 intelligence contracting companies in 25 countries that "develop technologies to allow the tracking and monitoring of individuals by their mobile phones, email accounts and Internet browsing histories," reported AFP.
Expiring statutes of limitations for journalists killed in Colombia is adding to the South American country's rampant impunity, according to Periodistas en Español (Journalists in Spanish).
Na quarta-feira 23 de novembro, o mundo celebrará pela primeira vez o Dia Internacional Contra a Impunidade, criado para coincidir com o aniversário do massacre de 32 jornalistas em Maguindanao, nas Filipinas, em 23 de novembro de 2009. A iniciativa da Intercâmbio Internacional pela Liberdade de Expressão (IFEX, na sigla em inglês) tem o objetivo de pedir Justiça para todos aqueles assassinados no exercício de seu direito à livre expressão e dar visibilidade ao problema da impunidade, explicou a própria IFE
On Wednesday, Nov. 23, for the first time, the world will recognize the International Day to End Impunity, held to coincide with the anniversary of the Nov. 23, 2009, massacre of 32 journalists in Maguindanao in the southern Philippines. The inaugural day is being organized by the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) as a "call to action to demand justice for those who have been killed for exercising their right to freedom of expression and shed light on the issue of impunity," according to IFEX.
Faring about on par with Asia, better than Africa but worse than Europe, only about 38 percent of countries in Latin America were fully responsive to freedom of information requests filed by the Associated Press (AP) as part of a 105-country-wide project, the AP told the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. In general, more than half of countries don't abide by their freedom of information laws, MediaBistro noted.
With Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa increasingly critical of the media, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in October issued a "freedom resolution" calling on the government to "reverse recent trends that seriously undermine a free and independent press in Ecuador, by repealing criminal defamation, putting a stop to all forms of harassment against journalists and guaranteeing the full independence of the media in the country."