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.
Facing the possibility that three more cases of killed journalists might expire this year, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, FLIP, demanded that Colombia's Attorney General take all the necessary steps to bring the cases to justice, said the organization in a statement.
The director and staff of freedom of the press organization Article 19 in Mexico received on April 19 a letter containing threats.
A police reporter in the notoriously dangerous state of Veracruz, Mexico, has been missing for 60 days, denounced Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French).
Various journalists have claimed that their coverage was restricted during the recent elections in Venezuela, won by Hugo Chávez’s designated successor Nicolás Maduro. According to the Press and Society Institute (IPYS), some local journalists had problems getting into voting centers and were impeded by the authorities.
Colombian journalist Yesid Toro has been forced to leave his city after threats against his life, reported the newspaper El Espectador. Threats against judicial reporters are not uncommon in Cali Colombia; however, on this occasion members of the Judicial Investigations Section (SIJIN) of the National Police recommended that he leave the city, added the newspaper.
The Mexican magazine Proceso has accused the authorities of Veracruz of planning to attack the journalist Jorge Carrasco Araizaga, who is investigating the murder of his colleague Regina Martínez.
On April 8, El Periódico, one of the principal independent newspapers in Guatemala, published an extensive and unflattering portrait of Vice President Roxana Baldetti.
A Mexican journalist was shot to death in the central Mexican city of Puebla leaving a bank on Monday, April 15, reported the news agency Notimex.
As a result of their ineffective prosecution of crimes against journalists and attempts at influencing news coverage, state authorities in Mexico have become a "major obstacle" to press freedom in the country, according to a report from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Press Institute (IPI).
As a result of their ineffective prosecution of crimes against journalists and attempts at influencing news coverage, state authorities in Mexico have become a "major obstacle" to press freedom in the country, according to a report from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Press Institute (IPI).
On Thursday night in Venezuela, interim President Nicolás Maduro ended his campaign in Caracas at the same time as opposition candidate Henrique Capriles closed his in Barquisimeto, the capital of Lara, the state where he was governor.