The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) called on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to immediately release journalist Víctor Manuel García Hidalgo, editor and director of news portal Informe Cifras, who has been incarcerated since March 1 at the petty crimes prison Yare III, accused of civic rebellion.
Adílison Oliveira, a journalist at the municipality of Taboão da Serra in the state of São Paulo, was beaten by 10 young men after photographing an accident at a Brazilian state school.
A new trial against Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori will begin on Oct. 17, this time for misappropriating almost $44 million from the Peruvian Armed Force budget. Fujimori is accused of using the money to bribe the owners of eight Peruvian tabloids of the yellow press, also known as “chicha” newspapers, and purchase their support during his third reelection campaign in 2000, the country’s anti-corruption prosecutor assistant, Joel Segura, told the news agency Andina.
In a public display of derision against private media that has become habitual, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa again ripped apart the editions of a handful of local newspapers during one of his recent televised national addresses known as "cadenas." This time Correa also warned three publications that they could face sanctions under the country's Communications Law, under which they are required to "publish public interest articles," non-profit Fundamedios reported.
The initiative is unheard of in Brazil: Distributing grants for independent investigative reporting and using online crowdfunding to collect the money. The news site Agência Pública announced last Friday, Sep. 20 -- a day before the deadline -- that it had raised the necessary amount to fund its project.
Government officials closed down a radio station and confiscated the equipment on Wednesday, Sep. 18, in the city of Guayaquil (southeast of the nation), informed news agency AFP. According to the Supervisor of Telecommunications, Supertel, the closure was due to the station operating illegally, reported AFP.
A total of 55 radio and television frequencies will be appropriated by the Ecuadorian government for failing to comply with the country's new communications law, said telecommunications minister Jaime Guerrero during a Sep. 20 press conference, news portal Infobae reported.
The Information Crimes Law, also being called "Beingolea Law" after Congressman Alberto Beingolea or "Frankenstein anti internet law" by some of its opponents, was approved almost by unanimity on Peru's Congress on Sep. 12 amid concerns over its possible effects on online privacy and freedom of expression.
Uruguay is the most recent country to propose a comprehensive media law to update for the 21st century the norms and regulations overseeing its communications. In May, President José Alberto “Pepé” Mujica sent the proposed bill to the Uruguayan legislature. The Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of the year.
Three years after the killing of Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, a 21-year-old Mexican photojournalist for newspaper El Diario in Ciudad Juárez in the Northern state of Chihuahua, the investigation into his death remains mired in impunity.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced last week the creation of ‘El Noticiero de la Verdad’ ("The Truth Newscast"), news agency EFE reported. Private and state media outlets will be required to run the new government radio and TV broadcast twice a day.
After Venezuela's withdrawal from the American Convention on Human Rights on Sep. 10, Venezuelans are now unable to take cases pertaining to freedom of expression violations, among others, to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, said Ariel E. Dulitzky, former assistant executive secretary at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and a leading expert in the inter-American human rights system, in a recent interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.