The economic good fortunes of Brazil, as increased newspaper circulation and online advertising revenue show, seem to have caught the attention of foreign media companies. Last Sunday, the New York Times announced its plans to launch a Portuguese site in Brazil during the second half of 2013.
Several Caribbean nations have pledged to reform their criminal defamation laws but must continue to work to fully repeal them, according to a new report published by the International Press Institute (IPI).
The Honduran digital newspaper Hondudiario announced that it was the target of a cyber attack that left its website out of service for 48 hours on Friday, Oct. 12, according to the Committee for Free Expression in Honduras (C-Libre in Spanish). Since 2009, the online publication has reported other threats and attacks, the worst of which was the killing of one of its reporters in August 2012. The crime remains unsolved.
The Argentine Audiovisual Communication Services Law, also known as the Media Law, set to take effect Dec. 7, has caught the attention of press freedom organizations across the world.
The state attorney for Baja California, Mexico arrested the alleged killer of journalist Abel López Aguilar, according to Azteca Noticias. López was the editor for the news website Tijuana Informativo and was found dead on the morning of Monday, Oct. 15.
The 68th Inter American Press Association (IAPA) General Assembly will conclude Tuesday, Oct. 16, with debates focused on the future of freedom of expression and journalism in the Americas. Since Friday, Oct. 12, reporters, media owners and critics have been meeting in São Paulo, Brazil to discuss crimes against the press, the sustainability of journalism, digital journalism and copyright rules.
The Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish) of Venezuela recorded 19 incidents that affected press freedom in the country during the presidential elections that took place on Sunday, Oct. 7, the group said in a report released on Oct. 11. According to IPYS Venezuela, the events happened between the week before the elections and the days after the results were announced.
In 1994, journalist Giannina Segnini founded a one-woman investigative unit—herself—at Costa Rica’s La Nación newspaper. Since then, the unit has grown into a five-person team that is trailblazing data journalism in Latin America, according to Journalism.co.uk.
The Global Editors Network (GEN) released a statement on its website calling attention to the Argentine government's attacks against the press in what it described as a "press freedom crisis." GEN warned that the government's intentions to break up Grupo Clarín and seize its assets on Dec. 7 is a threat to press freedom in Latin America.
An Ecuadorian newspaper was fined $500 for publishing photographs of underage children with President Rafael Correa, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The judge for Children and Adolescents fined the director of the newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez Barriga, on Oct. 2, according to IPYS.
"Maras" and criminal gangs exerted the greatest censorship against the Guatemalan press between July and September 2012, according to a trimester report from the Journalists Observatory of the Center of Informative Reports on Guatemala (CERIGUA in Spanish).
Carlos Dada, the editor and founder of El Salvador’s El Faro news website, received the Anna Politkovskaya Award on Oct. 5 for the website’s investigative journalism and reporting. The prize honors Russian reporter and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in 2006 in Moscow. The prize is given by the Italian weekly publication Internazionale and goes to journalists working in hazardous situations or regions.