"This demonstrates that you can prosecute not only the clowns, but also the owner of the circus," said Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa as he celebrated the high court's ruling upholding the defamation sentence against the owners of the newspaper El Universo, the same newspaper reported Thursday, Feb. 16.
A Mexican congressman has proposed a law to regulate news coverage about the arrests of organized crime suspects, according to the official state news agency Notimex.
A Guatemalan reporter received death threats from a National Civil Police agent while trying to cover a vehicle accident, according to the Guatemalan Center for Informative Reports (Cerigua in Spanish).
Because of the recent attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression in Ecuador, the country's president, Rafael Correa, has been criticized in recent days by various journalistic organizations, according to the newspaper La Hora.
Authorities from the Dominican Public Ministry raided the offices of the digital newspaper El Siglo 21 and two residences of journalist Guillermo Gómez on Feb. 10, reported the newspaper El Nacional. Allegedly, José Ángel Gómez Canáan, the journalist's son, participated in a spy network accused of hacking into the e-mail accounts of First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández and several high-ranking bank executives, reported Listín Diario.
Several freedom of information groups were outraged at a proposed reform to Guatemala's access to information law, which would make diplomatic and military documents confidential, reported the Guatemalan Center for Investigative Reporting.
Editors of a magazine in the tourist city of Cancún, Mexico, claimed that their publication was pirated on Feb. 5 in violation of the press law, the rights of the authors, and industrial property laws, according to NotiSureste.
A Honduran journalist was kept from traveling to Brazil on Feb. 3, when he was ordered to appear in court, reported the Committee for Freedom of Expression in Honduras.
The Juarez Journalists Network reported three city police attacks on reporters in one week in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The latest came the evening of Friday, Feb. 3, when police officers arrested and beat a reporter for El Diario in the newspaper's parking lot, according to Clases de Periodismo and Objetivo Radio.
Accusations on Twitter and other social networks led the Journalistic Observatory to investigate claims that executives of the official Guatemalan newspaper, Diario de Centro América, forced employees to stay inside the building and took away their cellphones, according to the Guatemalan Center for Investigative Reports.