Are media blackouts effective—or even ethical—when a journalist has been kidnapped? That’s the question Frank Smyth, a senior adviser for journalist security with the Committee to Protect Journalists, explored in a recent blog post on the organization’s website on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
The presidents of three newspapers in the Dominican Republic have asked for the decriminalization of defamation, in the Law on Expression and Diffusion of Thought and in the Penal Code, on the grounds on unconstitutionality, reported the newspaper El Día.
A group of armed men fired at the building of Mexican newspaper El Siglo de Torreón on Tuesday Feb. 26, according to this newspaper published in Northern Mexico. It's the third time the newspaper has been attacked in the last four years. Earlier this month, five of its employees were kidnapped and freed after several hours. No one was hurt during the attack but some employees suffered from anxiety attacks, the newspaper said. On Tuesday afternoon, Torreón mayor Eduardo Olmos visited the newspaper to speak with it
A radio reporter known for his crime reporting was shot dead in the city of Jaguaribe, Ceará on Friday, Feb. 22, according to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo. He was the second journalist killed in Brazil this year. The first killed also worked for a radio station in a community north of Rio de Janeiro.
Renowned Mexican reporters Marcela Turati and Javier Valdez, as well as Chilean narrative journalist Cristian Alarcón, will discuss on Feb. 28 their work and the need to forge a bridge between journalists and academics during a forum hosted at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Mexican federal government will carry out an audit of all contracts given out to provide security to journalists and human rights advocates during the administration of former president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), according to the Campaign for Free Expression.
President of El Salvador Mauricio Funes has named the commissioners of the Public Information Access Institute after 15 months of delays, and 10 days after vetoing a reform that would have weakened the new body, said El Faro.
In what has become a historic decision, the Council of State of Colombia ordered the National Police to correct a statement given in 1996 that affected two businessmen, said the newspaper El Tiempo. The Director of the Police will have to give a press conference and correct the information given to a television news program as an “exclusive” that linked two businessmen with a drug cartel, said the paper.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, two gunmen shot and killed a Peruvian photojournalist for the newspaper El Comercio, reported the website Perú 21. The attack sparked debate about the public's security, the risks journalists run and how the media covers violence.
The Brazilian media company UH News was sentenced to pay over $7,500 in moral damages, according to the court's website.
A Mexican newspaper in the state of San Luis Potosí revealed an audio recording that supposedly catches the governor's spokesman telling his staff to create anonymous social media profiles to dispute inconvenient information, according to the newspaper Pulso de San Luis.
The only newspaper in the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, the Penguin News, published a fake interview with Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman after the official refused to speak with the media, reported the newspaper La Nación.