The Journalists' Union of Panama reported a 275-percent increase in the number of press freedom attacks in 2012, according the news agency Xinhua.
The Venezuelan government accused the international media last week of promoting a "psychological war" with their coverage of president Hugo Chávez's health, who is suffering from a serious lung infection, Venezolana de Televisión reported.
Guatemalan journalist Héctor Cordero is known for three things: for being the only full-time journalist covering the department of El Quiché for a national TV newscast, for his relentless reports on corruption and abuse of authority, and for regularly angering public officials in the region. In the current struggle over political power in El Quiché, Cordero has become an extremely bothersome figure for the department's ruling class.
A lawsuit filed by the head of the Argentine Federal Revenue Administration (AFIP in Spanish) against a journalist was denied for the second time, reported the newspaper La Nación.
In 2009, Bernardo Ruiz met reporter Sergio Haro in a Starbucks across the U.S.-Mexico border in the city of Mexicali, Baja California.
Press freedom in Brazil was hostage to violence against journalists in 2012. Just days before the end of 2012, another case was announced that illustrated the escalating hostility and threats against reporters.
Journalists have not escaped the violence that has dominated life in Colombia over the last several years. According to statistics from the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP in Spanish), 160 reporters were victims of some kind of threat, violence, illegal detention or killing in 2011.
n Argentine journalist said he should be admitted to a hospital after breathing an airborne pesticide fumigated in a field 50 meters outside the town center of Alberti, Buenos Aires province, reported the newspaper Hoy.
A photographer in the Brazilian state of Roraima alleged the head of the state's military police attacked him and ejected him from a government event on Dec. 23, 2012, reported the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
Reporter Mauri König was advised to leave Brazil due to threats he received after publishing accusations against the police in Paraná state, reported the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
A court in Ecuador denied an injunction that sought to rescind an executive order from President Rafael Correa prohibiting his ministers and other public officials from giving interviews to private media, arguing that there was no evidence of a "violation of a constitutional right".
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) admitted the case of murdered Colombian journalist Hernando Rangel Moreno, reported the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in a press release on its website on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012.