On the one hand, there are reporters that are eager to tease out available data and extract valuable information about public administration. On the other hand, there are technology enthusiasts that are trying to find ways to build mapping and information visualization tools that can circulate on the world web. What happens when you put these two groups together? Searching for an answer, the Brazilian newspaper Estado de S. Paulo will launch the first hacker marathon, or "Hackathon," organized by a news outlet in Brazil
About 25 international organizations that advocate for freedom of expression, as well as more than 50 journalists and news media outlets, many of whom participated in the 10th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, signed a petition urging state authorities of Veracruz, as well as the Mexican federal government, to protect the safety of journalists and to solve the nine killings of Veracruz reporters in the last 18 months. The petition was published on Monday, June 18, four days after the killing of reporter Víc
On Tuesday, June 12, the Argentine Journalism Forum applauded the new public information access in the Misiones Province of Argentina, which was approved on June 7 by the provincial congress, and said that this "means a significant step forward for freedom of expression, state transparency, and citizens' rights in democracy."
A report published by the Interacting Advertising Bureau, an association that brings together the main web sites and Internet portals in Brazil, said that the Internet has surpassed newspapers and has become the second-most preferred medium for advertising investments in Brazil during the first quarter of the 2012 year, reported iG.
After Brazil initially objected to the United Nations' Action Plan to improve journalists' safety and fight impunity, Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Brazilian representative at the United Nations, sent a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) saying that the country supports the program, CPJ said on Wednesday, June 13.
After the Mexican TV station Televisa requested an apology from the British newspaper The Guardian for reporting about alleged documents that proved that political candidates paid for favorable coverage on its TV news programs, the newspaper responded with new evidence.
International organizations expressed concern about the Mexican journalist and her son who went missing on Friday, June 8, in the city of Saltillo, in northern Mexico, and demanded that authorities find the missing journalist.
The Brazilian police of Maranhão declared the case of the killing of journalist Décio Sá solved, adding that he was killed for his reporting. The killing happened on April 23, 2012, in a bar in São Luís, capital of the state, reported the newspaper Estado de São Paulo.
Another journalist was killed in Veracruz, México; his body was found inside of plastic bags in the early morning of Thursday, June 14, in the city of Xalapa, reported the Associated Process and the weekly Proceso. The search started the night before after the journalist was kidnapped while leaving his office, according to Reuters. It is believed that the journalist was probably a victim of organized crime, reported the newspaper El Economista.
An opposition group reported that the Cuban police brutally attacked an independent journalist renowned for going on a 135-day hunger strike leading up to Cuba's release of more than 50 political prisoners, according to the newspaper Diario de Cuba.
The city of San Fernando, in the Venezuelan state of Apure, removed the Friday, June 8, edition of the weekly magazine Notisemana from circulation for not having a filed registration with the city's Autonomous Tax Service, reported Globovisión. The National Association of Journalists (CNP in Spanish) of Apure-Amazonas criticized the city's actions, which it considered arbitrary.
In only 15 days, four radio broadcasters and two TV channels were closed in Ecuador, reported the news agency EFE. The Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios reported that the closed news media outlets are the TV channels Telesangay (of the province of Morona Santiago), Lidervisión (from Napo), and the radios stations El Dorado (from Sucumbíos), Líder (from Napo), Pantera (from Pichincha), and Net (from Tungurahua), reported the news paper El Comercio.