Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández was awarded the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize given by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Hernández was recognized for her investigative reporting on corruption and the abuse of power in Mexican politics, the association announced on its website on Thursday, March 1.
With slightly more than a week under its belt, the new Reporters' Lab website is aiming to arm reporters with the tools, techniques, and research to better cover stories of public interest, hold the government accountable, and preserve investigative reporting.
The Florida city of Lauderdale Lakes has sent local blogger Chaz Stevens a "cease-and-desist" legal notice, saying the city will sue for civil damages if the blogger continues his "repeated false allegations, threats, attempted extortion, slander, libel, defamation, and invasion of privacy," reported the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
In February, an organization which defends freedom of expression, Article 19, launched the Community Communication Observatory, an online platform which aims to increase the visibility of bureaucratic difficulties and legislative problems facing community media outlets in Brazil.
WikiLeaks' latest information release -- The Global Intelligence Files -- has yet to produce any major stories, but what is noteworthy are the media outlets with which the whistleblower site partnered this time around. WikiLeaks cites 25 media collaborators, none of which were among the site's original partner publications -- which condemned WikiLeak's uncensored release of its entire cache of secret diplomatic cables in September 2011 -- calling attention to the wedge driven between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange an
Guest post by Lise Olsen, Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) board member from 2007-2011, and director of IRE-Mexico from 1996-1998. Twenty leading journalists gathered in Mexico City on Friday, Feb. 18, to exchange information and discuss ways that Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) can continue to help reporters who, under pressure and often at great personal risk, continue to do investigative reporting on U.S.-Mexico border topics such as children victimized by cartel violence, wasteful government spendi
On Feb. 17th, more than 300 newsroom employees of the Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) signed a statement demanding that the journalistic integrity of their work be upheld as the network negotiates its sale with private investor groups, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. The statement also expressed “dismay” that journalists’ coverage of the sale has been compromised and censored by corporate management, said Poynter and Politico.
Bolivia's National Press Association (ANP in Spanish) documented 200 cases of aggression against journalists in Bolivia in 2011, reported the news website Clases de Periodismo.
After international outcry, on Monday, Feb. 27, Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa announced his decision to pardon journalists in the $40 million libel suit against the newspaper El Universo, its three owners and a former newspaper columnist, who were facing three years in prison. The president also dismissed the fine against the authors of a book detailing the president's alleged acts of nepotism, reported the Associated Press.
Three journalists from a local television channel in Honduras received death threats for covering the prision fire which killed 350 inmates Feb. 14 in the city of Comayagua, in central Honduras, reported the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre in Spanish).
As presidential elections in Venezuela approach, President Hugo Chavez on Saturday, March 24, criticized the alleged assaults on journalists of the state-run National System of Public Media committed by supporters of the opposition, according to the website for the Venezuelan National Assembly.
The Ecuadoran government announced that it would not comply with the request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) made to suspend the libel sentences against the owners of the newspaper El Universo, Carlos, César and Nicolás Pérez, and former opinion page editor Emilio Palacio, calling the requested measures “inapplicable,” reported the NGO Fundamedios.