After the killing of a blogger in Maranhão, freedom of expression nonprofit organization Article 19 Brazil has called on federal and state authorities to respond to violence against journalists in that state.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas will expand its online journalism education program over the next four years thanks to a $600,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
On April 13, a Brazilian court sentenced Marcos Bruno Silva de Oliveira to 18 years in prison for involvement in the 2012 murder of journalist Décio Sá. This is Oliveira’s second trial; he appealed the first sentenced and had it annulled.
Using the SecureDrop system, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a digital platform that journalists and other people around the world can use to share information with them or to report violations of press freedom.
Depicting a funeral march, dozens of Honduran journalists marched with at least 60 symbolic coffins to the public prosecutor’s office in Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the deaths of journalists that have occurred in the country in recent years, reported newspaper El Heraldo.
The mid-year meeting of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which took place from April 8 to 11 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, concluded discussions renewing its support for press freedom and condemning the continuing violence suffered by journalists on the continent.
Documents obtained by judicial order show that the company JBS, one of the largest food company in the world, and another company contracted by it in 2015 sponsored a smear campaign against Brazilian journalist and founder of the nonprofit organization Reporter Brazil, Leonardo Sakamoto. The information was published by Folha de S. Paulo on April 8.
Since Operation Car Wash began in March 2014, it has dominated the political agenda in Brazil. Considered by the Federal Police as the biggest corruption investigation ever undertaken in the country, its coverage is a challenge even for experienced journalists, like the editor in chief of Época magazine, Diego Escosteguy.
Journaist Ivan Pereira Costa was shot outside his home in Cujubim, Rondônia, in northwestern Brazil. His wife, journalist Ediléia Santos Silva, told G1 that the attempted murder may be related to her husband's work.
No interviews from public officials or access to press conferences, a duopoly of TV stations and most radio stations, and a law of access to public information that is not fulfilled: this is what fills the days of independent journalists in Nicaragua.
Businessman Ronan Maria Pinto, owner of São Paulo newspaper Diário do Grande ABC, was arrested on April 1 as part of Operation Car Wash, an investigation into corruption in the Brazilian government and various companies. The investigation has fueled a political crisis in Brazil that reaches the top levels of government.
Matías Avelino Castro of the Dominican Republic, alleged mastermind behind the murder of Dominican journalist José Agustín Silvestre in 2011, was arrested on April 3 in Bogotá, Colombia, reported Colonel Juan Carlos Gómez, chief of Interpol Colombia, according to AFP.