On Monday, Aug. 27, Brazilian civil society organizations launched the campaign "Freedom of Expression--A New Law for a New Time," reported the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication. The campaign marks the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian Telecommunications Law and calls for a new "general communication law" that defends plurality, diversity, and equal access to media and telecommunications in the South American country.
On Thursday, Aug. 23, the Colombian Supreme Court announced a libel lawsuit against a journalist, and criticized commentaries published by another journalist, reported the newspaper El Tiempo and the magazine Semana. The court was upset over the columns that questioned and criticized some of the court's decisions.
Some 200 people are working on the publication "No se mata la verdad matando periodistas" (Don't Kill the Truth by Killing Journalists), a book that will tell the stories of 126 killed or disappeared reporters and press workers in Mexico since 2000, according to Reporte Índigo.
The Bolivian government said that it would sue the Fides News Agency (ANF in Spanish) for alleged defamation against Bolivian President Evo Morales, although the case is still being analyzed by a legal team, reported the newspaper Los Tiempos.
On Monday, Aug. 20, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) declared the blockade on the circulation of newspapers in Argentina a "press freedom violation." “While the unions have a legitimate right to express themselves, their actions cannot limit the right to press freedom nor restrict people’s access to the information that the news media disseminate," IAPA said.
A reporter from the Brazilian newspaper Jornal da Tarde, in São Paulo, will run for city council this year 2012 elections in order to cover the campaign from a different perspective, reported the newspaper's website.
A new program from the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET in Spanish) in Mexico aims to reduce the emotional and mental stress journalists covering organized crime and violence face in their jobs, announced the organization.
In another ruling in favor of press freedom, on Tuesday, Aug. 21, a court in São Paulo, Brazil, rejected a $3.5 million lawsuit against the TV station TV Globo, reported Conjur.
What can be done to improve media coverage of international migration in the Americas? More than 50 journalists, specialists, and NGO representatives met in 2011, in Austin, TX, to discuss this issue. The highlights of their discussion is now available in a digital booklet by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, "Media Coverage of Migration in the Americas," which can be downloaded in Spanish and English.
On Monday, Aug. 20, the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo announced the launch of the website FolhaSPDados, an online resource for the up-coming mayoral elections in the city of São Paulo. The website will feature interactive maps and infographics to illustrate and accompany the newspaper's coverage of the election's main themes.
After finishing a year at Harvard as a Latin American Knight Foundation Nieman fellow, Guatemalan journalist Claudia Méndez Arriaza created an interactive map "A life is a life." The map pinpoints homicides in Guatemala City, and, aside from visualizing the data, also includes the names of the victims in this capital city, one of the 10 most violent places in the world, where in 2011 106 of every 100,000 inhabitants was killed. Méndez was inspired by the journalism organization HomicideWatch, which aims to highlight h
The killings of 12 Brazilian journalists between August 2010 and July 2012 prompted the National Association of Newspapers (ANJ in Portuguese) to announce a "special alert," reported the news agency EFE. The alert was announced during the opening of the 9th ANJ Congress, on Monday, Aug. 20, in São Paulo.