Oil spills in the Amazon, indigenous peoples fighting for their native territories, protected areas threatened by oil drilling and illegal mining activity, the great impact of livestock farming on the forests of protected areas and natural disasters were the most popular issues for readers of digital site Mongabay-Latinomérica in its first year.
Daily obstacles motivated Panamanian journalists Ana Graciela Méndez and Alfonso Grimaldo to create El Tabulario – a project, launched at the end of May, which collects, analyzes and disseminates public data with the aim of promoting transparency in the country.
While Latin American community radios have received greater recognition in their countries since the mid-2000s, they remain limited and discriminated against in practice and by law.
Operation Car Wash, known as Lava Jato in Brazil and considered the biggest corruption case in that country’s history, has provoked the indignation of many citizens. For this reason, journalist Luiz André Alzer gave Brazilians the opportunity to seek "revenge" and punish corrupt politicians and businessmen through a card game he created that is inspired by real characters and situations of the scandal.
João Miranda do Carmo, of Brazil, and Marcos Hernández Bautista, of Mexico, were among the 14 individuals whose names were added to the Journalists Memorial at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on June 5.
In response to allegations of 23 journalists injured during police repression of social protests in Paraguay, the government of that country announced the coming adoption of a security protocol for journalists at risk.
Civil society representatives from Uruguay called on their government to effectively implement the Law of Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA for its acronym in Spanish) and involve them in the development and implementation of the guidelines regulating it.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) documented the progress of jurisprudence on freedom of expression in the Americas in its recent report, “National Case Law on Freedom of Expression.” The report analyzes the time period from 2013 to 2016 in ten countries in the region.
Photographers from nine countries in Ibero-America were among the winners of the 2017 Pictures of the Year Latam (POY Latam) contest. The biennial competition awards excellence in documentary and artistic photography across Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the United States. This year, finalists from more than 1,900 entries were judged in Barcelona, Spain, and the winners were announced on May 27.
May 26 marked 56 days of continuous protests against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during which journalists face aggression from police, armed collectives and protesters alike.
Chilean-Venezuelan journalist Braulio Jatar, who has been in jail since Sept. 3, 2016, has been released and is under house arrest.
Mexican journalist Martín Méndez Pineda, who sought political asylum in the U.S., voluntarily returned to Mexico after spending 100 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French).