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.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli lambasted news media owners during a speech Monday, Jan. 2, before the Legislative Assembly, reported the Associated Press. During the speech, Martinelli, who also owns a chain of supermarkets, highlighted the achievements of his administration, such as a reduction in poverty and a 10 percent growth in the economy, contrasting these successes with the media criticisms against him coming from owners upset over paying taxes, according to the news agency AFP.
The December holidays did not bring a respite for journalists under attack in Honduras. The Committee for Freedom of Expression in Honduras (C-Libre in Spanish) expressed concern that members of the National Police threatened a cameraman with death and intimidated a television correspondent during the last days of 2011. As a result, the Spanish organization Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT in Spanish) sent a letter to Honduran president Porfirio Lobo demanding efficient measures to stop aggression again
Brazilian journalist Laécio de Souza was shot to death the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 3, in the metropolitan area of Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia, reported G1. Police said the radio reporter had received threats on his cell phone minutes before he was killed, according to the news site Itaberaba Notícias.
Mexican newspapers El Diario de Coahuila and El Heraldo de Saltillo criticized the private security business Serviprose, whose guards are accused of attacking and stealing from reporters in the northern city of Saltillo, for failing to comply with an agreement to pay damages.
At the start of 2012, media organizations and news sites are looking back at the top stories of 2011 (see this CNN list for a good run-down), suggesting new year's resolutions for newsrooms, and even offering a few trends that will "reshape digital news in 2012," as Poynter did.
The national executive of the PSDB, the opposition party in Brazil, has threatened to sue controversial journalist Amaury Ribeiro Junior, author of the book A Privataria Tucana, that alleges cases of misappropriation of funds by members of the political party, according to Estadão. The journalist came under fire last year when he was charged with bribery and using false documents.
An Argentine television reporter and cameraman were beaten, threatened with death, and ordered to strip when they tried to cover a human trafficking story about Bolivian families on a farm in the western province of Mendoza on Dec. 29, reported the official news agency Télam and Diario Uno.
A radio broadcaster was attacked live on the air by an assailant who invaded the studios of community radio station CS FM in the Brazilian city of Canoas in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, reported G1.
Online courses and webinars, workshops, conferences, e-books, a news blog and direct assistance to journalists' organizations have been offered by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas during 2011.