A journalist was abducted by armed kidnappers the night of Wednesday, March, 7, while he was waiting for his girlfriend at a university in Aracaju, capital of the state of Sergipe in Brazil, reported the news site G1.
Online news consumption is becoming important around the world as audiences and investments grow exponentially. In the United States, digital media advertising revenue is increasing while traditional media revenues are decreasing, and in Brazil, online advertising revenue is expected to surpass print in 2015. However, not all professionals that work in the news industry are prepared to modify their print style of writing to a screen style, nor do they take into account the fact that online reading is different.
The Bolivian government approved a decree requiring media owners to guarantee transportation at night for journalists and other press workers, reported radio station FM Bolivia. The door-to-door transport is supposed to run from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
A radio broadcaster became the 19th journalist killed in Honduras since 2010, prompting press groups to call for an investigation into the violence, reported the Associated Press.
The Brazilian Superior Court on Tuesday, March 6, ordered the publishing company Editora Abril to pay roughly $283,000 in damages to the senator and ex-president Fernando Collor de Mello, who claimed he was insulted in an article published by the magazine Veja, reported the news site G1. The publishing company can appeal the ruling.
A U.S. journalist working in Chile said he was unjustly arrested, and criticized the police brutality that has worsened since multiple protests erupted in Chile in May 2011, reported the news agency UPI.
In a statement, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the Ecuadorian government for "flagrantly" distorting information about what was discussed during a meeting between HRW and the National Communication Secretary of Ecuador, Fernando Alvarado, where freedom of expression in the country was debated.
A Paraguayan journalist said he received a death threat from Senator Robert Acevedo, reported the newspaper ABC Color on Friday, March 2. The senator denied the accusations, saying that it was an attempt to cause him political harm, added ABC Color.
A Brazilian court in São Paulo ordered the company responsible for the news site 24HorasNews to pay roughly $28,400 in damages to the newspaper company Folha da Manhã, which publishes Folha de São Paulo, for violating authorship rights, reported the site Prosa e Política.
A judge in Honduras refused entry to a television reporter wanting to attend the court hearing for a lawsuit that he himself had filed against a Catholic leader who assaulted him, reported the organization C-Libre.
Mexican senators approved a proposal ("dictamen de ley") that would require federal authorities to investigate, prosecute, and punish crimes against journalists or any attacks affecting the rights to access of information, freedom of expression or of the press, according to a statement from the Senate.
Venezuelan journalist Laure Nicotra criticized the arbitrary cancellation of the news program that she had hosted for five years on TV station Canal 7 in the state of Barinas in southeast Venezuela, reported the National Association of Journalists of Caracas.