On Thursday, May 10, an appeals court ruled on the killing of Peruvian journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández in 2004 and absolved former Mayor Luis Valdez Villacorta of Coronel Portillo and former City Manager Zolio Ramírez Garay who were accused of being the masterminds behind the crime, reported the Press and Society Institute.
Although Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the press of distorting information on the same day the country celebrated Journalists' Day, on Thursday, May 10, the president said that freedom of the press in the country is "guaranteed" and approved a bill giving journalists life insurance, reported the news agency EFE, the newspaper La Razón, and the radio station FM Bolivia.
Amid Argentine public officials' mounting attacks against the press, the Inter American Press Association asked the Argentine government to "stop harassing and stigmatizing journalists,” reported the news agency Los Andes. The call comes as two more Argentine journalists were victims of officials' anti-press attitudes.
A journalist was surprised when he found a dynamite stick on his apartment's balcony in the city of Matozinhos in the state of Minas Gerais, on Saturday, May 5, reported the newspaper Estado de Minas. Oswaldo Mesquita, news site editor for Informatoz, was at his home with his wife, two kids, and other family members. There was no explosion, reported the news site G1.
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) has named El Salvador's online newspaper El Faro as one of the recipients of the 2012 Human Rights Awards, recognizing the site's investigative journalism that "shines a spotlight on corruption and organized crime," WOLA announced on Wednesday, May 9.
Two editors from TV channel Canal 13 of Chile resigned, alleging censorship after they were told to stop working on a a controversial report about discrimination against domestic workers in the country, reported the news agency Emol and the Radio Universidad de Chile.
According to Peruvian police, the mayor of Comandante Noel, Marco Rivero Huerta, is the mastermind behind the killing of journalist Pedro Flores Silva who was killed in September 2011 in Casma, reported the newspaper La República.
In addition to the kidnapping of Honduran journalist Alfredo Villatoro, five other Honduran journalists reported death threats in San Pedro Sula during 2012 so far, reported the newspaper La Prensa.
After the United States criticized the state of freedom of expression in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa fired back, saying it was an “embarrassment” that U.S. President Barack Obama would “defend informants,” according to the news agency AFP.
Mexican journalist Humberto Padgett was among the winners of the prestigious 2012 Ortega y Gasset Journalism Prizes, organized by the Spanish newspaper El País, awarded Tuesday, May 8. Padgett, a reporter for the Emeequis magazine, won the prize for print journalism for his work "The Lost Boys" (Los Muchachos Perdidos), about organized crime in Mexico.
A journalist from the most influential Honduran radio station was kidnapped in the capital of Tegucigalpa, early in the morning of Wednesday, May 9, reported the newspaper La Prensa.
The former president of the Brazilian city council of Curitiba (Paraná), João Carlos Derosso, threw a humor journalist's microphone out the window of a four-story building on Tuesday, May 8, reported the newspaper Gazeta do Povo. Journalist Maurício Meirelles is from the TV program Custe o que Custar on the CQC station.