The murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa on 31 July in Mexico City was without a doubt a turning point in matters of security for Mexican journalists. For this reason, his colleagues are demanding that the crime does not go unpunished and that the Mexican state provide protection for journalists.
Update (August 24, 2015): From the Quito International Airport on August 21, Brazilian journalist Manuela Picq announced she had decided to leave Ecuador due to the "legal limbo" in which she found herself after the Ecuadoran courts failed to reactivate her visa, reported newspaper El Universo.
The free flow of information regarding an active volcano currently erupting about 30 miles south of Quito, Ecuador may be threatened now that President Rafael Correa has declared a state of emergency in that country.
Mexico was the second country in the region to implement a protection mechanism. However, after three years of its existence, its effectiveness continues to be questioned as the numbers of journalists murdered grow. This is the first of a series of posts about special protection mechanisms for journalists created by governments in Latin America.
Brazilian journalist Gleydson Carvalho died Thursday after two men fatally shot him at his radio studio while he was on air.
A journalist who had fled Veracruz out of concern for his life has been found dead in Mexico City, calling attention to ever increasing violence against media workers in Mexico and existing protection offered to those who fear for their lives.
Fearing for his life, a Honduran journalist who exposed an alleged corruption scandal implicating the country’s president and ruling political party has found safe harbor at the country’s national human rights office.
In the first six months of 2015 alone, there were 59 documented attacks against journalists in Guatemala, according to a report released last week by the Observatory for Journalists of the Center for Informative Reports about Guatemala (CERIGUA for its acronym in Spanish).
In the last decade, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries of the world for journalists, largely due to the so-called War on Drugs in the northern region that borders the United States.
Brazilian journalist and editor Dorrit Harazim won the Recognition of Excellence Award of the Gabriel García Márquez (GGM) Journalism Award, as was announced July 22 by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Ibero-American Journalism (FNPI by its acronym in Spanish).
Mexican federal court repealed a recurso de amparo, an action to protect an individual’s constitutional rights, launched by journalist Carmen Aristegui after she was dismissed from the MVS radio group. The action was done in order for Aristegui to return to work on the MVS news program First Issue (Primera Emisión).
Rodrigo Neto, a journalist and radio host from Ipatinga, Minas Gerais, denounced injustices and held police accountable.