Honduran journalists covering police and judicial issues publicly denounced the National Police for threatening and harassing them because of their investigations into the killing of two students from the National University of Honduras, according to IFEX and C-Libre.
The death of Brazilian TV cameraman Gelson Domingos, shot Nov. 6 while covering a police raid in a favela, or slum, outside Rio de Janeiro, has re-ignited concerns about the safety of journalists reporting in high-risk areas. Such concerns previously came to the forefront with the 2002 torture and killing of journalist Tim Lopes in another slum in Rio de Janeiro.
The director of a community radio station in the Brazilian city of Araçagi, Paraíba tried to stab the host of another radio station during a live broadcast on Nov. 5, reported the news site Focando a Notícia.
For the fourth time in two months in the city of Nuevo Laredo in Mexico, a body has been found with a message threatening users of social networks, reported GlobalPost and La Jornada.
Leocenis García, editor of the Venezuelan newspaper 6to Poder, announced on Nov. 9 that he would go on a hunger strike for an "undetermined time" to reinvigorate the appeal against his detention, reported El Universal. García was arrested Aug. 30 after publishing a cover satirizing several female members of President Hugo Chávez's administration.
The Attorney General’s office in Bolivia requested a list of the journalists who covered the oppression of indigenous peoples who participated in the protest march for the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory, according to the newspaper La Razón.
The newspaper El Buen Tono, which had only been in circulation for one month, temporarily ceased publishing due to damages sustained to their computer system, editing and administrative departments, as the newspaper Hoy de Veracruz reported.
With Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa increasingly critical of the media, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in October issued a "freedom resolution" calling on the government to "reverse recent trends that seriously undermine a free and independent press in Ecuador, by repealing criminal defamation, putting a stop to all forms of harassment against journalists and guaranteeing the full independence of the media in the country."
Since Honduran President Porfirio Lobo took office on Jan. 27, 2010, following disputed elections, 16 journalists in the Central American country have been killed and none of the crimes have been solved. In a 2010 report, the Committee to Protect Journalists claimed the “murders [of press workers] occurred in a politically charged atmosphere of violence and lawlessness.” The violence's political undertones have raised concerns about impunity and freedom of expression in Honduras in the wake of the 2009 coup d’ét
After publishing a series of reports on government salaries in all three branches that exceed constitutional limits, the news site "Congresso em Foco" (Congress in Focus) became the target of a flood of legal charges from the public servants in the Brazilian Senate, reported the website on Oct. 31.
Cameraman for TV Bandeirantes Gelson Domingos died in a firefight between police and drug traffickers on Nov. 6 in the Antares favela in Santa Cruz, west of Rio de Janeiro, reported G1. Domingos was covering the police operation in the community when he was shot with a rifle.
Late in the evening of Nov. 7, students occupying the chancellor's office of the University of São Paulo in protest against the presence of military police on the campus attacked journalists covering the event, reported the news agency Estado.