After a five-month wait, Nación Data has launched the Spanish version of the Data Journalism Handbook. The book is free, open-source, and is designed to help journalists use data to improve their stories.
The president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, has presented the Congress with a proposal that toughens content regulations on the media, including regulation on schedules and punishments for broadcasting violent or obscene content, content that celebrates or defends crime, or content that goes against morals and good behavior, said La Prensa. Lobo’s proposed telecom law is popularly known as the “ley mordaza” – the gag law – due to its restrictions on press freedom.
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the killing of Mexican journalist Regina Martínez, hundreds of journalists in 20 Mexican cities took to the streets on Sunday, April 28 to demand protection for the press and investigations into crimes against journalists. On Storify and Tumblr, journalists published images and text about the unpunished killings and attacks on journalists.
Officially launched in Brazil in December 2007, today digital TV covers 46.8 percent of the country, according to data from the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL). What does this mean less than three years out from the end of analog TV broadcasting – which, by decree, is set to end in July 2016? What is the federal government planning to reach the remaining 53.4 percent before the deadline?
Update 2: Anonymous journalists in Saltillo told the magazine Proceso that a representative from the Coahuila state prosecutor knew in advance where to find the bodies of Martínez and Zamora.
Brazil has a big lead as the country with the most government requests to remove online content by judicial order in the latest Google Transparency Report, released on Thursday, April 25. In the period between July and December 2012, the search giant received 1,461 court-ordered requests from governments around the world to remove content, including YouTube videos and search results, with nearly 43 percent of them coming from Brazilian authorities.
Carlos Manuel Artaza, a journalist in Paraguay was shot five times and killed on Thursday April 25 in Pedro Juan Caballero city, near the capital of Asunción, where he was hospitalized, reported newspaper ABC Color.
The independent Mexican journalist Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her research on the network of bribery and corruption that was a key part of Wal-Mart de México’s expansion strategy, recounted to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas how she joined the investigation begun by David Barstow of the New York Times into the Mexican operations of the world’s largest supermarket chain.
In an open letter, NGOs have warned the president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, of a possible plan to kidnap a journalist in the state of Veracruz. In the letter, the International Press Institute (IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) urged Mexican authorities to investigate the situation and take necessary measures to guarantee the journalist’s safety.
Around 70 journalists from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal participated in the sixth Ibero-American Colloquium on Online Journalism, an addition to the International Symposium on Online Journalism with a regional focus.
Non-profit journalism companies get most of their financing from a single foundation or donor, but this model is not sustainable in the long term, warned Kevin Davis, director general of Investigative News Network, which supports 82 non-profit media organizations in 27 US states.
On Friday, April 19, the chief of police in Minas Gerais confirmed the participation of police officers in the killing of two journalists in Vale do Aço, reported the website R7. Members of the civil and military police are under investigation for the killings.