Salvadorian authorities arrested Francisco Valencia, director of the newspaper Co Latino, late Thursday night. Valencia is accused of slandering a now-retired police chief in 1996, El Salvador.com reported.
Two media outlets in El Salvador have announced that they are going to use nonmilitary drones to cover the upcoming presidential election. The drones are to provide videos, photos and new perspectives of the Feb. 2 election for the 2014-2019 term, said Salvadorian newspapers El Diario de Hoy and La Prensa Gráfica.
The Office of Human Rights in Paraguay (Codehupy) took the torture allegations of Paraguayan journalist Paulo López to multiple UN organizations last week, according to Paraguayan news magazine E’a.
Following the closure of a dozen Venezuelan newspapers due to the country’s paper shortage crisis, hundreds of journalists and journalism students marched down the streets of Caracas on Jan. 28 calling the government to sell foreign currencies to print media outlets so they can purchase much-needed newsprint. The journalists said they will continue to protest until the government resolves the situation, newspaper El Nacional reported.
The Spanish freelance photographer Borja Lázaro is still missing after disappearing on Jan. 8 in the Colombian northeastern department of La Guajira, infamous for drug trafficking and a growing presence of “Bacrim” - criminal paramilitary gangs – Reporters Without Borders informed.
Seventeen years after the murder of the Argentine photojournalist José Luis Cabezas, the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) called for those responsible for the crime be returned to prison.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) applauded the decision by the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court to accept a lawsuit filed last year challenging the legality of the country’s controversial Organic Communications Law. IAPA was hopeful the action will refuel the debate over governmental measures set by the law that limit freedom of expression in the country.
The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), one of the most important and active journalism organizations in the country, was chosen as the 2013 Personality of the Year by the Make a Difference Awards, which have been organized by the Brazilian newspaper O Globo for the last 11 years. The newspaper made the announcement on Saturday Jan. 27, and highlighted Abraji’s contributions to freedom of expression and information in the country.
Ecuador’s National Secretariat for Communications (SECOM) has placed the freedom of expression organization Fundamedios under its administrative control. The organization believes this action seeks to harass them and fears it could lead to its dissolution.
The Ecuadorian government has asked cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, known as Bonil, to appear before the Superintendent of Information and Communication and explain the contents of an editorial cartoon published in newspaper El Universo that officials are calling defamatory. Seven months after Ecuador’s new Communications Law came into effect and created the office of the Superintendent, Bonil is the first media worker to be summoned by the new agency.
Trinidad and Tobago’s House of Representatives passed on Jan. 24 a bill that partially decriminalizes defamation. The bill will now proceed to the Senate for consideration.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission will investigate the Jan. 23 murder of a journalist in Guerrero. It is the first killing of a journalist in Mexico this year.