After pardoning the journalists in a $40 million libel lawsuit against the newspaper El Universo, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa once again attacked the press, saying that in Latin America there exists a "media dictatorship" and that now is the time for "free citizens to rebel against this abuse," reported the news agency EFE.
After being offered asylum in Panama to avoid a $40 million libel lawsuit and three years in prison, one of the owners of the Ecuadoran newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez Barriga, arrived in Panama on Saturday, March 3, and met with the country's chancellor, Roberto Henríquez, reported the news agency Ansa Latina. Pérez had sought refuge in the Panamanian embassy in Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 16.
A team of television journalists from Globovisión in Venezuela was threatened while covering attacks by supporters of President Hugo Hugo Chavez against opposition candidate Henrique Caprilles Radonski in Cotiza, a neighborhood in the capital city of Caracas, according to Globovisión.
An ex-attorney general sued a Mexican journalist and publishing house for libel over passages published in the book "Los Señores del Narco," or "The Drug Lords," reported Radio Formula.
The regional court in Cundinamarca, Colombia, upheld a criminal libel sentence against a Colombian journalist on Wednesday, Feb. 29, for publishing an editorial criticizing former governor and senator María Leonor Serrano de Camargo, reported the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP in Spanish).
A Colombian activist and journalist who received death threats after uploading a video to YouTube showing police violence has decided to flee from his native city of Huila, Colombia, reported the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP in Spanish).
The Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, now considered the most dangerous city in the world for the 159 killings per each 100,000 persons -- surpassing the violence of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico -- has become a hostile place for journalists.
A judge in Curitiba, Brazil, ordered the Atlético Paranaense soccer team to allow journalist Osmar Antônio to do his job, otherwise the team faces a $29,000 fine for each act against the reporter, who works for Banda B, according to UOL Esporte. The decision was published Wednesday, Feb. 29.
A Chilean journalist was attacked by police while taking photos of a demonstration in support of residents of the region of Aysén in Santiago on Friday, Feb. 24, according to the Corporation of Promotion and Defense of the People's Rights (CODEPU in Spanish).
Unknown assailants beat a Mexican political journalist on Thursday, Feb. 23, in the city of Mexicali, located in northeastern Mexico along the Californian border, reported the Program for Freedom of Expression (Libex).
Milton Coleman, president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and an editor of The Washington Post, visited Honduras on Tuesday, Feb. 28, to talk with President Porfirio Lobo about a proposed bill to regulate the Honduran media, reported Proceso.
A Brazilian reporter was arrested and booked for contempt of authority on Tuesday, Feb. 28, while gathering information about an airplane accident in the Amazonian city of Manaus, according to the news site Portal Amazônia.