Community radio station, Ibicoara FM, was set on fire the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the city of Ibicoara, located in the Brazilian state of Bahía, reported the blog Minuto Notícias. The door of the station had been forced open, and all of the broadcast equipment was burned.
A Guatemalan reporter received death threats from a National Civil Police agent while trying to cover a vehicle accident, according to the Guatemalan Center for Informative Reports (Cerigua in Spanish).
Brazilian journalist Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues was shot to death during an attack the night of Sunday, Feb. 12, in Ponta Porã in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul on the border with Paraguay, reported Última Hora. Police suspect it was a hired killing.
Because of the recent attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression in Ecuador, the country's president, Rafael Correa, has been criticized in recent days by various journalistic organizations, according to the newspaper La Hora.
On Friday, Feb. 10, the organization Reporters Without Borders called for a thorough investigation into the killing of Brazilian journalist Mário Randolfo Marques Lopes and his wife, Maria Aparecida Guimarães, reported the news agency EFE. The couple was shot to death in Barra do Piraí, in the state of Río de Janeiro.
As tablets and e-readers become a growing trend for news consumers, the newspaper O Globo launched the first digital edition in Brazil designed for iPad, “O Globo a mais,” on Jan. 30. The initiative is a sign of the news industry’s interest in developing new platforms for its content.
Authorities from the Dominican Public Ministry raided the offices of the digital newspaper El Siglo 21 and two residences of journalist Guillermo Gómez on Feb. 10, reported the newspaper El Nacional. Allegedly, José Ángel Gómez Canáan, the journalist's son, participated in a spy network accused of hacking into the e-mail accounts of First Lady Margarita Cedeño de Fernández and several high-ranking bank executives, reported Listín Diario.
Inspired by Colombia's Journalist Day, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP in Spanish) presented a report expressing its concern over the state of freedom of expression in Colombia. The Colombian Federation of Journalists also released a statement noting that while there were fewer reporters killed in 2011, violence against journalists continues to rise in the Andean country.
With violence, political unrest and impunity increasingly taking hold of Latin America, freedom of expression is constantly being violated in Central American countries, with journalists being threatened, attacked, intimidated, kidnapped, tortured and killed for political, monetary, criminal and ideological motivations.
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, CNN indefinitely suspended commentator Roland Martin for homophobic tweets he sent during the Super Bowl, reported the Washington Post.
Several freedom of information groups were outraged at a proposed reform to Guatemala's access to information law, which would make diplomatic and military documents confidential, reported the Guatemalan Center for Investigative Reporting.
A reporting crew from the Venezuelan newspaper Últimas Notícias was detained by the Bolivarian Militia in a hospital in the capital, Caracas, on Feb. 8, reported the website Clases de Periodismo.