The co-owner and director of the Brazilian newspaper Costa Oeste was shot to death the evening of Saturday, March 24, in front of a beverage distribution company in the city of Santa Helena, in the interior of the state of Paraná, reported the newspaper Jornal de Santa Catarina.
During an interview in Spain, Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa questioned the funding of the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), reported the newspaper La Hora. "Do you know who funds Human Rights Watch, is it the Sisters of Charity, the Sinaloa Cartel?" Correa said to the Spanish journalist who was interviewing him.
The Mexican newspaper Diario de Juárez accused the Department of Public Safety of refusing to grant official advertising to the newspaper since February 20.
Representatives of the Salvadoran gangs MS-13 and Neighborhood 18 denied in a public statement that leaders of their groups made a deal with the government to lower their number of killings and crimes, as was published in the newspaper El Faro, reported ContraPunto.
A young man confessed to killing Colombian journalist and political leader Argemiro Cárdenas Agudelo, and said that he was offered about $1,000 for the crime, which occurred on Thursday, March 15, reported the newspaper El Universal.
On the afternoon of Monday, March 12, a cameraman working for TV Record was attacked while covering a traffic accident in Campo Grande, capital of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, reported the news site MS Record.
On Wednesday, March 7, a group of pro-government Argentine newspapers launched the Federal Association of Publishers of Argentina (AFERA in Spanish) as an alternative to the group Association of Newspaper Entities in Argentina (ADEPA in Spanish), reported the newspaper Perfil.
Reporters Without Borders criticized police violence against local and international journalists covering protests in Chile, and expressed concern for the safety of journalists in a statement released Monday, March 19.
Ernesto Pérez Balladares, the ex-president of Panama, filed a civil lawsuit against the newspaper La Prensa for $5.5 million, reported the newspaper La Estrella.
On Tuesday, March 20, the governor of the Brazilian state of Piauí prevented journalists and press officers from attending a national Congress meeting, reported the news site Portal Imprensa.
In 2011, 172 attacks against the Mexican press were registered, and nine of these were killings. That's up from the 155 attacks recorded in 2010, according to a report from the organization Article 19 released Tuesday, March 20. The report, Forced Silence: The State Complicit in Violence Against the Press, shows that public officials were responsible for more than half of these attacks, according to the magazine Proceso.
Just seven months from the upcoming presidential elections in Venezuela, attacks against the press have intensified, according to Reporters Without Borders.