Four assailants poured petrol on a Bolivian reporter and lit him on fire during his radio program on Monday night, Oct. 29, reported BBC. Fernando Vidal, owner and director of Radio Popular in Yacuíba, a city along the border with Argentina, is in critical condition, reported the EFE news agency.
Press workers in Mexico face poor wages, job insecurity and a high risk work environment. "The profession's standing has diminished because people know it's dangerous to be a journalist and, furthermore, it doesn't pay well," said Ariel Muñoz, president of the University of Morelia, in an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
The federal telecommunications commissioner in Mexico, Mony de Swaan, announced that it was possible to bid for two new television channels before 2015. That year is the deadline to transition television signals from analog to digital in Mexico, according to the news agency EFE.
A Bolivian journalist claimed bullets were fired at the door of his home in the southern city of Tarija on Oct. 11, reported the news agency ANF. Reporter Humberto Vacaflor reported the attack to the local police but the Special Force to Fight Crime asked him to bring the suspects to the station himself, the agency added.
Brazilian radio host Edmilson de Souza was shot to death inside the studio where he worked in the city of Itabaiana, Sergipe, on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 28, reported the website Sou de Sergipe.
An Ecuadorian journalist claimed she received death threats after presenting a series of reports on drug consumption and carrying guns in schools in the city of Guayaquil, reported the Associated Press.
Sympathizers of Ecuador's President Rafael Correa protested last week outside the María Moors Cabot Prizes ceremony in opposition to Columbia University's decision to give the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo an honorary citation for its defense of freedom of expression, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.
A mayor in Honduras ordered the closure of a television channel and interfered with the distribution of the newspaper El Heraldo, reported the publication.
A member of the Colombian National Police attacked a photographer on Tuesday, Oct. 23, reported the newspaper Vanguardia Liberal. Ana María García, photographer for the newspaper El Tiempo, was covering a serious accident on the mass-transit system of Bogotá, the capital, when the officer attacked her, according to the newspaper.
According to the National Association of Newspapers in Brazil (or ANJ in Portuguese), members that followed the association’s recommendation to abandon Google News have seen a decrease in web traffic of only 5 percent.
The Mexican Secretary of Government announced the 17 members that make up the Advisory Council for the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, reported the news agency Notimex.
The state government of Puebla filed a legal complaint against two journalists for "abusing freedom of expression" and the local press reported that the government is considering 17 more similar cases, according the news agency AFP.