A Honduran judge ordered arrest warrants for five suspects in the kidnapping and killing of journalist Alfredo Villatoro, reported the news agency AFP on Tuesday, May 22.
The emotional consequences of chronic stress impact freedom of expression, said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma during the opening session of the second day of the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas. “Exhaustion and emotional crisis are as effective forms of censorship for silencing a journalist as jail sentences or a bullet," Shapiro said.
“I need a gun,” is what a journalist requested as a safety measure to work in Veracruz, one of the most dangerous places for the Mexican press. After the request, Daniela Pastrana, of the Mexican organizationJournalists on Foot (Periodistas a Pie) responded to that journalist that a fire arm was not the solution, but her colleague from Veracruz insisted: “I don't want the gun to defend myself, but to make sure they don't catch me alive." The reporter's response came after five Mexican journalists were found dead wit
One day after reporter Marcos Ávila was kidnapped by three armed men in the Mexican state of Sonora, authorities found the journalist's body strangled and with signs of torture. A message that has been attributed to drug-traffickers was found next to the body, reported the newspaper El Universal on the afternoon of Friday, May 18.
“Protecting journalists is not a recommendation but an institutional obligation of the state," said the special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Organization of American States, Catalina Botero, during her presentation at the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas addressing Security and Protection for Journalists, held May 20-22 in Austin, Texas.
Latin American journalists increasingly are facing legal threats to freedom of expression, according to experts on the panel "The Legal Threats to Press Freedom: From the Old Criminal Defamation Laws to the Newest Attempts to Regulate the Internet," during the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Fondations, held May 20-22 in Austin, Texas.
Mexican authorities of the state of Sonora in northeastern Mexico, confirmed the kidnapping of a police beat journalist who covers local security and justice issues, on Thursday, May 17, reported the Associated Press.
As the investigation into the kidnapping and killing of Honduran journalist Alfredo Villatoro, continues, the local press is reporting on possible motives and suspects behind the crime.
Just hours after Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said that kidnapped journalist Alfredo Villatoro was still alive, the secretary of Public Security denied this information and announced that on the night of Tuesday, May 15, authorities discovered the dead body of the prominent radio journalist who worked for HRN, the most prominent Honduran radio station, reported BBC news.
The Mexican radio station Grupo Fórmula sent a letter to the owner of the newspaper Reforma to clarify the sponsorship payments made by presidential candidate and former governor of the state of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, reported the same radio station.