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.
The Brazilian broadcaster TV Itapoan's helicopter was shot at in the city of Salvador, Bahia, reported the website Band. A man shot at the helicopter as it flew over the city for the live program Bahia no Ar.
Editor and photojournalist Abel López Aguilar was killed on Monday early morning in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, in the state of Baja California Norte, several national and international media outlets informed.
In what’s become the latest episode of aggressions against journalists during the electoral season in Brazil – especially in smaller municipalities – a group of people who were celebrating the victory of one of the candidates for the prefecture of Lagoa Seca threatened to death and tried to break into the car of a reporter from TV Correio, reported Portal Correio.
A Peruvian journalist working in the area of human rights received two phone calls with death threats and an envelope with four bullets on Oct. 4, according to the Press and Society Institute, or IPYS. The relatives of Rosario Huayanca Zapata, who works for the Human Rights Commission of Ica (in the south-central region of the country), received the phone calls, while the envelope was found at her work.