Despite difficulties in obtaining public records and information from both the U.S. and Mexican governments, reporters with Univision’s investigative unit were able to uncover numerous unknown details about the controversial gun-smuggling scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious.
Four journalists were assaulted and hospitalized on Friday, Aug. 22, while covering the first session of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI in Portuguese) on bus transportation of the Rio de Janeiro City Council, reported the News site G1.
Without any proof or evidence, Mexican journalist Jesús Lemus Barajas was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of drug trafficking, only to get his freedom back after serving three years in maximum security jail, according to Reporters Without Borders.
A new period of violence against freedom of the press has begun in Guatemala, said the UN's special rapporteur for freedom of expression Frank La Rue in an opinion piece denouncing the recent wave of aggressions against journalists in the country.
The Buenos Aires chapter of the organization Hacks/Hackers is a few days away from the beginning of its second Media Party, which in less than two years has become one of the biggest events on the continent for techie journalists and programmers interested in media.
Guatemalan reporter Carlos Alberto Orellana Chávez was killed on Monday, Aug. 19, in the town of San Bernardino, located in the province of Suchitepéquez, reported Cerigua. Orellana Chávez is the fourth reporter killed in Guatemala this year.
C-Libre, a Honduras-based organization promoting freedom of expression, is questioning the suicide of journalist Aldo Calderón, who was investigating the killing of his colleague Anibal Barrow.
After receiving criticism for putting an end to an initiative that sought to prevent drilling for oil in parts of the Yasuní National Park, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said on Twitter on Monday that he will propose a referendum to eliminate the country's print media in an alleged effort to save paper.
Despite going against the workers' wishes —who have gone all the way to court to reverse the decision — it appears that the Chilean government will end up getting rid of newspaper La Nación, of which 69% is owned by the state.
The assassination of Mexican reporter Armando “El Choco” Rodríguez, committed in 2008, will be the first homicide case taken up by the federal government's Special Prosecutor's Office on Crimes Committed against Freedom of Expression, reported El Diario de Juárez.
The Civic Association for Communication and Information for Women (CIMAC in Spanish) released a report yesterday on violence against female journalists in Mexico. The document details the types of offenders, forms of violence, age and marital status of almost 100 journalists who have been attacked or intimidated in the last decade.
The director of a Guatemalan newspaper accused the government of trying to enter his house on two separate occasions last week, reported Spanish news agency EFE. However, federal officials denied that the agents had the intention of entering his home or intimidating him.