After the killing of his family and five of his colleagues, Mexican reporter and photographer Miguel Ángel López Solana urged journalistic organizations to protect journalists in the state of Veracruz on Tuesday, May 22, during the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, themed Security and Protection for Journalists and organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations.
In the annual Amnesty International 2012 report presented in London on Wednesday, May 23, the group said that there "were new restrictions" to freedom of expression in Venezuela, with journalists facing fines and myriad accusations, reported the newspaper El Universal and the news agency EFE.
During the last day of the 10th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, held May 20-22, the participants gathered into four groups to discuss different and important topics about this year's theme: "Security and Protection for Journalists, Blogger, and Citizen Journalists."
A Honduran judge ordered arrest warrants for five suspects in the kidnapping and killing of journalist Alfredo Villatoro, reported the news agency AFP on Tuesday, May 22.
On the second day of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas’ 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, a panel of experts spoke on the role of state protection mechanisms for journalists in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.
Who left their computers locked and protected with a password? This is the question that Renata Ávila, blogger for Global Voices, opened with for the panel "Protection and Prevention Strategies: How to help journalists, bloggers, and citizen journalists in a hostile environment?" on the second day of the 10th Austin Forum of Journalism in the Americas.
The emotional consequences of chronic stress impact freedom of expression, said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma during the opening session of the second day of the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas. “Exhaustion and emotional crisis are as effective forms of censorship for silencing a journalist as jail sentences or a bullet," Shapiro said.
“I need a gun,” is what a journalist requested as a safety measure to work in Veracruz, one of the most dangerous places for the Mexican press. After the request, Daniela Pastrana, of the Mexican organizationJournalists on Foot (Periodistas a Pie) responded to that journalist that a fire arm was not the solution, but her colleague from Veracruz insisted: “I don't want the gun to defend myself, but to make sure they don't catch me alive." The reporter's response came after five Mexican journalists were found dead wit
The 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas kicked off the night of Sunday, May 20, with an examination of some of the major security issues facing journalists throughout the Americas. During the Forum's opening session, Frank La Rue, the United Nations' special rapporteur for freedom of expression, along with newspaper editors from Mexico and Guatemala, highlighted the risks of independent reporting in a region increasingly racked by violence, corruption and rampant impunity.
One day after reporter Marcos Ávila was kidnapped by three armed men in the Mexican state of Sonora, authorities found the journalist's body strangled and with signs of torture. A message that has been attributed to drug-traffickers was found next to the body, reported the newspaper El Universal on the afternoon of Friday, May 18.
Two days after the Brazilian information access law went into effect, the Forum on the Right of Access to Public Information (FDAIP in Portuguese) published a recounting of the law's shortcomings and controversies.
Highlighting the need to celebrate journalists' work as way of creating a country- and world-wide atmosphere respecting freedom of expression, Guy Berger, director of UNESCO's Division of Freedom of Expression and media development, briefly outlined the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity during the first day of the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas.