Brazilian journalist Everaldo Fogaça was threatened by the head of the Federal Police, Eduardo Brun de Souza, according to the newspaper O Globo. Fogaça was testifying at police headquarters after being indicted for publishing on his news site the manifesto from a student group on strike at the Federal University of Rondônia.
In the northern Mexican state of Durango, four strangers broke into a journalist's home the night of Oct. 14 while she and her mother were asleep, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The intruders locked the two women in a room, and after spending several hours in the house, they stole the journalist's computer, car, and credentials, along with personal photos, underwear and perfume, IPYS said.
Rapporteurs for freedom of expression from the United Nations and Organization of American States denounced the Mexican state's slow response to prosecute those that commit crimes against journalists. In the presentation of the report, "Freedom of Expression in Mexico," both organizations noted that violence against journalists in the country was the worst in the continent and the fifth overall in the world, reported EFE.
Police arrested two suspects in connection with the killing of Brazilian journalist Auro Ida on Oct. 17 in Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso, reported Diário de Cuiabá.
A reporting team from TV Globovisión was attacked by a group of employees from the Venezuelan city of Plaza on Wednesday, Oct. 19, as they were covering protests in the city of Guarenas, close to the capital city of Caracas, according to the Press and Society Institute.
Bolivia’s National Association of the Press denounced restrictions from a new campaign rule, saying the regulation impeded journalists’ ability to effectively cover the Andean country’s first judicial elections held Oct. 16, reported IFEX.
Honduran journalist Karla Rivas became the first woman honored with the 2011 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism awarded by Reporters Without Borders and the Global Media Forum on Oct. 20, announced the organizations.
The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) is offering 15 investigative journalism scholarships to reporters from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The deadline for submissions is Oct. 31, 2011.
The Inter American Press Association's (IAPA) 67th General Assembly in Lima, Peru, ended with the organization issuing a series of resolutions and conclusions highlighting the fact that "attempts to silence the independent press" in Latin America have continued to mount in 2011, as evidenced by the rampant "physical violence, the murder of journalists and the impunity of these crimes, lawsuits, arbitrary arrests, verbal abuse, and the manipulation of government advertising to laws or restrictive bills."
Journalist Wilson Cabrera, whose community radio station was closed by the Ecuadorian government, was prohibited from traveling to the United States by judicial order, reported the newspaper El Universo.
The Venezuelan National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) ordered the television channel Globovisión, known for its critical editorial stance toward President Hugo Chávez's government, to pay a nearly $2 million fine, reported the news agency EFE.
The journalist Juan Carlos Calderon, co author of the book El Gran Hermano (Big Brother), was threatened via telephone by an anonymous source, according to Fundamedios. The journalist was threatened: “You will be next.”