A Colombian journalist was attacked and threatened by unknown individuals in Ecuador after publishing a detailed report about the lack of freedom of expression in Ecuador and the recent decision of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to give asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, reported the newspapers Hoy and La Hora.
A slew of attacks and threats against journalists took place over the last week in Argentina. After being beaten, one journalist also received a death threat in the village of Sancti Spirtiu in the province of Santa Fe on Tuesday, Aug. 14, reported the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish).
Another Honduran digital newspaper journalist was shot to death on Friday, Aug. 10, reported the Center for Informative Reports of Guatemala (Cerigua in Spanish).
According to a report published by the Coalition ProAccess movement, the right to access public information in Venezuela is being restricted by the government, reported the organization Espacio Público, on Monday Aug. 13.
On Thursday, Aug. 16, the Ecuadorian government confirmed that it would grant political asylum to Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, who had sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in the United Kingdom on June 19 after being under house arrest since December of 2010 in that country for being accused by the Swedish government of sexually assaulting two women in Stockholm in August 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported.
During the Paraguay Resists Social Forum, that took place in the Plaza of Arms, in front of the national Congress, in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Tuesday and Wednesday Aug. 14 and 15, journalists and the Paraguayan press reported a campaign against public and alternative news media ever since President Fernando Lugo was removed from office on June 22 and replaced by Federico Franco in what some have referred to as an administrative coup, reported the newspaper Diario de Carlos Paz.
With the arrest of two alleged Mexican drug lords, the Veracruz Attorney General declared that the cases of five killed journalists were solved, but the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the organization Article 19, questioned the state government's way of trying to close the investigations, according to CNN México.
According to a court in São Paulo, the Brazilian press has the right to release all material leaked by government agents and confidentiality only applies to the police or judicial authorities who are responsible for it, reported the Counsel's website on Wednesday, Aug. 15.
The Venezuelan NGO Espacio Público launched on Tuesday, Aug. 14, a campaign for the end of President Hugo Chavez's forced TV and radio broadcasts, reported El Universal.
On Monday, Aug. 13, the Red Cross International Committee reported that the National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish) freed the journalist and engineer kidnapped by the guerrilla group on July 24. The victims were turned in to a humanitarian commission.
Mexican female journalists have been attacked 115 times in the last 10 years, with a noticeable increase after 2009, according to a new report by the association Women's Communication and Information (CIMAC in Spanish). What's worse, the killings of 13 female journalists remain unsolved, said the organization.
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has partnered with Univision News to create investigative video stories aimed at Spanish speakers in the United States and Latin America, according to LA Observed.