Most attacks against the Mexican press come from police and military, and authorities are collaborating with organized crime by not investigating or punishing cases that harm freedom of expression, according to several Mexican media reporting on an upcoming study titled "Forced Silence: The State, Accomplice in Violence Against the Press in Mexico." The report is to be released by the press freedom organization Article 19 on Tuesday, March 20, in Mexico City.
On Monday, March, 19, a car bomb exploded in front of the offices of a Mexican newspaper in Ciudad Victoria, capital of the northern state of Tamaulipas, reported the BBC. This makes the 25th armed attack with explosives against news media outlets in Mexico in the last three years -- none of which have been investigated by authorities, according to an upcoming report from the press freedom organization Article 19 that will be released on Tuesday, March 20.
The Guatemalan press reported 33 assaults during 2011, an election year, up from 19 incidents in 2010, according to a report published on Thursday, March, 15, by the Journalist Observatory of the Cerigua Agency.
The deputy director of a local newspaper in Mexico said that he was detained for an hour in the mayor's office, where he was forced to reveal his source for a news story, reported the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET in Spanish).
A Honduran Catholic Church official accused of assaulting a journalist will be tried by the supreme court, the highest court of justice, due to his church status, reported the organization C-Libre.
The Embassy of Sweden in Guatemala accused two journalists of defamation for stating on television that the Swedish government finances terrorist groups in this Central American country, reported the Guatemalan Center of News Reports (CERIGUA in Spanish). One of the accused journalists, Sylvia Gereda, Gereda denied the accusation on her blog and said she has the documents to back up the statements made about Sweden.
A magazine in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico, said that its journalists received death threats in the comment section of it's website, reported the Center of Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET).
The organization Reporters without Borders expressed concern that charges were dropped against the suspects in the killing of a journalist, cameraman Normando García, who was killed in the Dominican Republic on Aug. 7, 2008, reported the organization.
A radio broadcaster became the 19th journalist killed in Honduras since 2010, prompting press groups to call for an investigation into the violence, reported the Associated Press.
A judge in Honduras refused entry to a television reporter wanting to attend the court hearing for a lawsuit that he himself had filed against a Catholic leader who assaulted him, reported the organization C-Libre.