On the day the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) met to analyze the state of freedom of expression in Ecuador, an Ecuadoran legislator proposed a bill, sent by President Rafael Correa, that would punish government officials who attack freedom of expression, meeting out sentences of three to five years in jail, according to the news agecy Andes.
A radio host in Peru claimed she was fired because of pressure from the mayor of her city, Cajabamba, in the north of the country, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish).
A jornalista mexicana Adela Navarro Bello foi uma das ganhadoras dos Prêmios Valor Jornalístico, concedidos pela Fundação Internacional de Mulheres na Mídia (IWMF, na sigla em inglês) em reconhecimento às mulheres que arriscam suas vidas para noticiar a violência e outros fatos em seus países.
In the northern Mexican state of Durango, four strangers broke into a journalist's home the night of Oct. 14 while she and her mother were asleep, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The intruders locked the two women in a room, and after spending several hours in the house, they stole the journalist's computer, car, and credentials, along with personal photos, underwear and perfume, IPYS said.
Rapporteurs for freedom of expression from the United Nations and Organization of American States denounced the Mexican state's slow response to prosecute those that commit crimes against journalists. In the presentation of the report, "Freedom of Expression in Mexico," both organizations noted that violence against journalists in the country was the worst in the continent and the fifth overall in the world, reported EFE.
Bolivia’s National Association of the Press denounced restrictions from a new campaign rule, saying the regulation impeded journalists’ ability to effectively cover the Andean country’s first judicial elections held Oct. 16, reported IFEX.
The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) is offering 15 investigative journalism scholarships to reporters from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The deadline for submissions is Oct. 31, 2011.
Journalist Wilson Cabrera, whose community radio station was closed by the Ecuadorian government, was prohibited from traveling to the United States by judicial order, reported the newspaper El Universo.
The journalist Juan Carlos Calderon, co author of the book El Gran Hermano (Big Brother), was threatened via telephone by an anonymous source, according to Fundamedios. The journalist was threatened: “You will be next.”
About 200 neighbors and employees are standing watch night and day at the offices of a TV news station in the city of El Alto (on the outskirts of the Bolivian capital of La Paz) after a labor union threatened to physically seize the station, according to Reporters Without Borders.