WikiLeaks cofounder and editor Julian Assange recently signed an agreement with Pública, a non-profit investigative journalism center that was launched in March by three Brazilian journalists, Terra Magazine reports.
The Chilean prosecutor's office has dropped the "public disorder" charges against photographer Marcela Rodríguez, who was working with the indigenous Mapuche digital newspaper Mapuexpress. Rodríguez had been arrested during a protest May 13, reported Liwenmapu.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the boycott against a newspaper in Colombia and the attempted raid on a daily in Argentina, which come amidst the growing number of incidents of aggression against the press in Latin America and somber reports about the future of freedom of expression in the region.
Internet users and media rights activists in Brazil organized a June 21 marathon of Twitter posts to call for improved infrastructure and expanded access to broadband Internet, Rede Brasil Atual reports. The hashtag #minhainternetcaiu (myinterenetisdown) and the phrase “Broadband is your right!” were both among the most posted topics in Brazil that day, Link do Estadão explains.
Journalist Esmael Morais’ blog is back online after being shut down more than two months ago at the request of Beto Richa, the governor of Paraná state. However, the journalist is still barred from discussing the politician or his family, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
Tools for managing, visualizing, and distributing data was a recurring theme in the 16 vanguard media projects that will share $4.7 million in funding from the 2011 Knight News Challenge. Since it began in 2006, the initiative, primarily funded by the John S. and James L Knight Foundation, has given out $27 million to 76 projects to promote journalistic innovation.
The announcement that the Chilean government will begin to monitor comments on social networks has prompted controversy among Facebook and Twitter users and sparked a debate about Internet privacy.
The government of El Salvador has announced a plan to make state television and radio broadcasters autonomous public media with the aim of preventing the outlets from being used to serve ruling political interests, reported the news agency AFP.
Amidst the new wave of violence against the Mexican press, including the killing of two journalists in two weeks, the discovery of a journalist's body in a secret grave, and the kidnapping of a reporter, journalists and press freedom organizations are doubting whether freedom of expression truly exists in Mexico.
Two Mexican journalists who risk their lives covering the illegal drug trade along the U.S.-Mexico border will receive the 2011 Knight International Journalism Award, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) announced June 22.
Edinaldo Figueira, newspaper founder, blogger and political party leader was shot to death Wednesday, June 15, in Brazil, according to Terra. Figueira, president of the Serra do Mel municipal chapter of Brazil's Workers' Party (PT in Portuguese) in Brazil's northern state of Rio Grande do Norte, had started a local newspaper and maintained a blog about local issues, according to Rede Brasil Atual.
The Brazilian government said it will no longer wade into the fight over adding a permanent secrecy provision to the information access law that is pending in Congress, Correio Braziliense and Folha de S. Paulo report. The amendment would allow top-secret documents to remain classified indefinitely.