Mexican reporter Marcela Turati received on Thursday Feb. 7 the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, awarded each year by the Nieman Fellows at Harvard University.
The British newspaper the Guardian released a statement admitting that Mexican television broadcaster Televisa' elections coverage complied with the Federal Election Institute's impartiality rules.
On Feb. 5, security officers at the Venezuelan National Assembly prevented reporters from privately-owned newspapers from covering an event at the country's legislature in the capital, Caracas, reported the website La Patilla.
The owner of radio station Sin Fronteras 98.5 FM Marcelino Váquez was gunned down and killed on Wednesday Feb. 6 in front of his work place in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, near the border with Brazil, website Paraguay.com informed.
President of the Venezuelan National Journalists' Union (CNP in Spanish), Tinedo Guía, requested more protection for journalists who cover the country's legislature, reported the newspaper El Universal. On Tuesday, Feb. 5, reporters from private media organizations were prevented from covering an event at the National Assembly in Caracas.
Media organizations and journalists top the list of the most influential Twitter users in Peru, according to a report done by the analysis firm Quantico Trends and published Feb. 4. Among the Top 20 most influential Tweeters are 14 users who are considered media organizations or journalists.
A Venezuelan security agency open an inquiry into a journalist with the purpose of pressing charges against him for "instigating crime" with his articles about the killing of a prison gang leader in the city of Maracaibo, according to the website El Oriente.
The Internal Affairs Office of the Colombian police accused an officer of involuntary manslaughter for the death of journalist Guillermo Quiroz Delgado, reported the newspaper El Universal. The disciplinary hearing of officer Jorge David Pérez took place on Monday, Feb. 4, at the Sucre department police headquarters, the newspaper added.
During the last five years, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has interrupted 1,365 broadcasts to give official announcements, adding up to 11,793 minutes, equivalent to eight days time, on the air, according to the organization Fundamedios in an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A Peruvian journalist was shot from a truck by at least three unknown attackers while he was riding his motorcycle, said the news site RPP Noticias. The attack against Juan Carlos Yaya Salcedo took place in Lima on Tuesday Feb. 5, the site added.
Pro-democracy organization Freedom House recently accused Venezuela’s chief national telecommunications company, CANTV, of denying access to the online newspaper Diario de Cuba after the publication ran a number of stories on the health of President Hugo Chávez in January.
On Friday, Feb. 1, Uruguayan President José Mujica announced that he would implement new media regulations in 2013, reported the newspaper El Diario. Mujica did not specify which regulations would be implemented but new media rules were a central part of his administration's political agenda, approved in 2012, noted the newspaper.