The last six months represented the worst semester for journalists in the Americas in the last five years, according to the Inter American Press Association, news agency EFE reported. The killing of journalists and the various government measures that restrict access to information were some of the reasons that IAPA cited during its General Assembly, which took place in Denver last weekend.
The concentration of the media by “autocratic” governments is one of the “the greatest obstacles for the freedom of the press in the western hemisphere during the last six months of the year” and the killing of 14 journalists represents one of the highest numbers in the last 20 years, the Inter American Press Association noted during the conclusion of its 69th General Assembly in Denver last weekend.
With the purpose of helping journalists from different regions and reaches of the country improve their coverage of the conflict and post-conflict in Colombia, and the goal of creating a network of colleagues that specialize on these issues, several organizations have joined to launch a new digital project, Plataforma de Periodismo (“Journalism Platform” in Spanish).
Carlos Martínez is a reporter with Salvadoran news site El Faro who specializes in covering violence in Central America. He's part of the publication's Sala Negra team, which was created in 2011 with the goal of creating a model for permanent coverage of prisons, gangs, organized crime and violence in the region.
The limits that Brazilian law places on the publication of historical biographies threatens freedom of expression and the preservation of memory, writers Mário Magalhães and Audálio Dantas said at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference while discussing the challenges of writing an unauthorized biography.
Viltor García, a bodyguard for cable channel director Karen Rottman, had just finished his shift on Oct. 19 when he was shot and killed by attackers in a vehicle with tinted glass windows in Guatemala City, informed Reporters without Borders (RSF). Rottman is the director of Vea Canal, an independent cable channel critical of the nation's administration.
Of the 124,394 applications received during the first 18 months since Brazil’s new Law of Access to Information (LAI) went into effect, 5.15 percent came from journalists, according to Brazil’s Inspector General Jorge Hage.
The Cuban government appointed new editors for its two main newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde, describing the move as part of a “renewal” process to improve the country’s official press, BBC News reported.
Rural media organizations in Paraguay recently denounced alleged pressures by larger media outlets to shut down community radios.
The director of a Brazilian radio station in in the city of Jaru, Rondônia, was shot and killed on Oct. 12. Another broadcaster was also injured during the attack.
The reported cases of aggression against journalists in Mexico reached a total of 225 between January and September of this year. Of these, two of the journalists died and 33 left the country under threats. In addition to the violence of organized crime, a serious problem of institutional censorship also affects Mexico.
Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa, president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF in Portuguese), criticized the journalistic coverage of judicial topics in Brazil. In his opinion, the press has been monothematic and addresses topics on the agenda with little preparation.