In Brazil, independent media have been working to make public transparency the rule, both in government and in newsrooms. Journalists from Fiquem Sabendo and Agência Pública give tips on how to conduct investigations using the Access to Information Law (LAI).
Proyecto Desclasificados, in Argentina, created a public and easily accessible database of declassified U.S. government documents related to Argentina, while Archivero, in Mexico, works against the authorities' refusal to allow access to documents classified as "state secrets" or "national security."
The research article “Spatial dimensions within hierarchy of influences: How re-conceived notions of space in networked societies impact Latin American journalists” shows that the geographic location of the newsroom influences the perception of the journalistic function.
For experts, as long as there is no comprehensive policy focused on prevention, protection and prosecution of crimes against journalists, it will be difficult for the panorama to change. But the support of society is also needed: It needs to understand and defend freedom of the press as a collective right.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has opened registration for the 24th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), which is taking place on April 14 and 15, 2023, at the University of Texas at Austin. A preliminary list of speakers is now available and more will be added soon. The full program will be published shortly.
The first webinar held by the newly created Network for Diversity in Latin American Journalism addressed the myths about diversity in journalism and shared lessons on how to overcome them. Journalists Lucia Solis, Ana Acosta, and María Eugenia Ludueña shared reflections and best practices for applying a diversity approach to journalism during a conversation held in Spanish on Jan. 26.
“News product management: How to adopt ‘product thinking’ in your newsroom” is a massive open online course (MOOC) in Portuguese that runs from Feb. 13 to March 12, 2023. At the end of the course, students will understand which skill sets they need in order to work with product in a newsroom, and they will be able to start adopting a product approach.
Venezuela has a favorable climate for disinformation and its government has taken advantage of the reach of social media to spread false information. A group of media and digital rights organizations have created the fact-checking network C-Informa to show how disinformation works in that country.
Turning to experts, not normalizing anti-democratic attitudes, and providing the public with the necessary context about lies and misinformation are some pieces of advice from experts on how to cover acts by extremist groups, such as those that happened on Jan. 8, when former president Bolsonaro's far-right supporters stormed three federal buildings in Brasilia.
Faced with the racial and cultural biases that exist in artificial intelligence tools, journalists from Grupo Octubre (Argentina), El Surtidor (Paraguay) and GMA News (Philippines) created Image2Text, a computer vision platform that seeks to add context from the Global South to image recognition technology.
The Brazilian government announced the creation of the National Observatory of Violence against Journalists, a demand from organizations defending press freedom and journalists. National Secretary of Justice, Augusto de Arruda Botelho, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) that the creation of the new body was motivated by the "escalating violence" against journalists in the country.
The newly formed Red para la Diversidad en el Periodismo Latinoamericano (Network for Diversity in Latin American Journalism) is hosting a series of four webinars to promote diversity in Latin American newsrooms and the news and content they produce. The first webinar, “Myths about journalistic coverage of diversity and how to deal with them,” will take place on Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. CST.