Tired of bloggers and aggregators profiting from their work and investments, the Associated Press, The New York Times Co., the Washington Post Co., and 26 other U.S. news organizations have launched a company aimed at tracking the online, unauthorized use of copyrighted content, reported the Associated Press.
The Online News Association (ONA) announced that it is joining mounting opposition to the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), arguing that the bill "would inappropriately shut down websites, disrupt the free flow of legitimate information and limit Americans from fully exercising their First Amendment rights," not to mention put at risk the future of social media and user-generated content, ONA said in a letter from its president dated Thursday, Jan. 5.
Journalists in Mexico and Ecuador had little to celebrate this year as they recognized Journalists' Day this week, according to the newspapers La Vanguardia and Hoy. Mexico, considered one of the world's most dangerous countries to practice journalism, remembered the seven journalists killed in 2011 on Jan. 4. Ecuador remembered a difficult year for freedom of expression on Jan. 5, following President Rafael Correa's aggressive stance against the media.
The Dominican online newspaper Diario Digital RD denounced a cyber attack against its Google and Twitter accounts, Facebook profile, and damage to its subscription database, reported the publication on its website.
A reporter for a conservative group's online news service was fired allegedly for making racist comments, reported the Associated Press. Leif Parsell, the State House reporter for the Maine Heritage Policy Center's news service, "The Maine Wire," had a history of making racist comments online, according to the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, which added that Parsell denied he was a racist.
The Inter American Press Association's annual review of press freedom found 2011 to be one of the most "challenging and tragic years" for the region's journalists, the association (IAPA) said in a statement.
An Ecuadorian judge's decision to sentence Hoy newspaper director Jaime Mantilla Anderson to three months in prison for libel drew condemnation from the Inter American Commission of Human Rights' Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, the Inter American Press Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists, reported the news agency EFE.
A Bolivian journalist filed charges of racial discrimination against the mayor of Santa Cruz after the mayor insulted the journalist, comparing him to a donkey during a press conference, reported the newspapers La Razón and El Deber on Jan. 3.
The Brazilian newspaper Diário do Litoral claimed that its journalists have been intimidated following the publication of a story accusing a beach condominium's security team in the southern coastal city of Guarujá of operating as a "militia," the newspaper stated in a letter released by the website Red on Jan. 2.
The International Association of Radio Broadcasters (AIR) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked the Brazilian authorities to carefully investigate the killing of journalist Laércio de Souza, a reporter for Rádio Sucesso in Camaçari, Bahia, reported the websites G1 and Terra.
Argentina's Arab community spoke out against against a Dec. 31, 2011, cartoon published in the newspaper Clarín, where a man in sandals, turban, and a belt of dynamite was selling imported fireworks, reported the news agency UPI.
Campaign trail coverage of the Iowa Caucuses on Tuesday, Jan. 3, is in full swing. By the end of December, the campaign was the most-covered story in U.S. media for the fifth time in seven weeks, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.