"Ecuador is in the midst of a press freedom crisis," International Press Institute (IPI) Deputy Director Anthony Mills said on Tuesday, Oct. 23, on the group's website. Mills' words were part of a press release announcing the final report of IPI's press freedom mission to the Andean country from May 7 to 11.
Fundamedios, a press organization, accused the Ecuadorian government of waging a smear campaign against it and private media in the Andean country, according to a statement on its website.
The Houston Chronicle unceremoniously closed its Mexico City bureau on Friday, Oct. 19, ending veteran foreign correspondent and bureau chief Dudley Althaus' 23-year run in the country, reported McClatchy Newspapers’ Tim Johnson on the blog Mexico Unmasked on Sunday, Oct. 21.
Mexican journalists denounced police attacks that interfered with their coverage of student protests in the city of Cherán, Michoacán, reported the organization Article 19.
Two Mexican journalists accused four police officers in the state of Puebla of abusing their authority after they detained the reporters and robbed them, reported the newspaper Milenio.
The National Newspaper Association of Brazil (ANJ) said the decision of its members to opt out of Google News en masse has made the service “very deficient” because it no longer has “the content with the highest credibility and quality in the nation.” However, ANJ reiterated its disposition to negotiate with Google a financial compensation for the use of the newspapers’ content.
After going missing for eight days, Brazilian journalist Anderson Leandro da Silva was found dead in a rural area outside Quatro Barras, in the city of Curitiba, on the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 18, reported the newspaper Gazeta do Povo.
The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish) denounced the "serious harassment" facing the media in a local community, the organization reported in a statement on its website on Tuesday, Oct. 16. According to FOPEA, this is the third time dispatchers for the newspaper El Debate have been attacked in Zárate, Buenos Aires, while delivering the publication.
For the first time ever, online advertising revenue is set to eclipse print ad sales in the United States by the end of 2012, Poynter reported on its website Thursday, Oct. 18. Climbing online ad sales will likely not lend a hand to struggling legacy media, however.
A TV journalist in Honduras that survived an attempt on his life last June said he and his family are still receiving death threats, according to the Committee for the Freedom of Expression in Honduras.
The Supreme Court of Chile authorized a request for the United States to extradite an ex-military officer accused of killing two U.S. journalists in the South American country, reported the AFP news agency. Both reporters died in 1973, during the early days of the Pinochet dictatorship.
Brazil’s main newspapers abandoned Google News after the world’s top search engine refused to compensate them for the rights to their headlines. The mass rush started last year when the National Association of Newspapers in Brazil, or ANJ, began recommending its members to opt out of the service.