Ecuador's National Assembly has approved President Rafael Correa's changes to the Democracy Code, which goes into effect Feb. 4 and prohibits news media from transmitting beneficial or harmful messages about candidates, reported El Diario.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security regularly monitors dozens of websites, including Facebook, Twitter, WikiLeaks, YouTube, and even the New York Times Lede Blog, Global Voices Online, and the Blog del Narco, in order to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture," reported Reuters on Thursday, Jan. 11.
A military judge has recommended that Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, face a court martial, reported the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Jan. 12.
Connecticut's Journal Register newspaper company has experienced its second round of plagiarism accusations in less then three months, reported Poynter. On Tuesday, Jan. 10, editor Matt DeRienzo revealed that a Jan. 5 front-page sports story in the Fairfield Minuteman plagiarized verbatim articles from two competing newspapers.
A Brazilian journalist was beaten and his memory card stolen by alleged plainclothes police while covering the repression of a student protest in the city of Teresina, capital of the state of Piauí in the evening of Jan. 10, reported the website O Dia.
Investigations have concluded that the killing of Mexican reporter Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino in the border state of Nuevo León was a case of mistaken identity, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Honduran freedom of expression NGO C-Libre accused a regional office of the Honduran National Commission of Human Rights (CONADEH) of restricting journalists from taking photos, videos, and interviewing immigrants held in a detention center in the city of Choluteca, in the south of the country.
The United States announced at its Mexican embassy that it will donate $5 million to improve the safety of journalists in the country over the next four years, reported CNN Mexico on Jan. 11.
Honduran independent journalist and human rights activist Itsmania Pineda Platero reported that she has been receiving constant death threats over the phone, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The Ecuadoran Attorney General and judicial police seized transmission equipment and closed the radio station Perla Orense on Jan. 7, in the southwestern El Oro province, reported Fundamedios.
Opinion pieces written by Brazilian journalist José Marcondes have made him the target of lawsuits from businessman Aldo Locatelli and Senator Pedro Taques in the state of Mato Grosso, reported Mídia News.
After the prime suspect behind the conspiracy to kill a Paraguayan journalist was freed on Dec. 31, 2011, the crime's perpetrators are now soliciting their own release on Jan. 10, reported the newspaper Vanguardia.