The International Association of Broadcasters (IAB) says changes that give more power to the authorities to regulate the media’s role in elections violate freedom of expression, restrict citizen’s access to media, and promote censorship, EFE reports.
A judge sentenced three directors and a columnist at El Universo daily to three years each in prison and $40 million in fines for defaming President Rafael Correa in a February 6 editorial, CNN reports.
A São Paulo judge has ordered Brazilian ISPs to block access to journalist Paulo Cezar Prado’s “Blog do Paulinho” website, Mônica Bergamo reports for Folha de S. Paulo. The site is known for criticizing and making allegations against executives at the Brazilian Soccer Confederation (CBF) and major domestic clubs.
Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled July 13 that government departments could not discriminate against the community radio station La Voladora with official ad spending, La Jornada reports.
Journalist Richard Romero was arrested July 18 in La Paz, Bolivia for allegedly committing “desacato” or “disrespect” by selling videos of a documentary he made that offended President Evo Morales, Los Tiempos reports.
Brazil’s federal police are investigating TV Tem, a Rede Globo affiliate in the city of São José do Rio Preto, for allegedly broadcasting confidential police recordings, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
In front of a police station in São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, two Brazilian journalists were attacked while attempting to interview a doctor under investigation for the death of a university student, Diário Web reports.
On July 14, journalist Fábio Roberto was attacked as he left the offices of Radio Bahiana in Ilhéus, Bahia, where he hosts an opinion show on which he often airs corruption allegations, Vi o Mundo reports.
Sport reporter Juan Pastén was arrested July 14 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia over a year-old defamation suit brought against the journalist by the president of the National Football Association (ANF), Jorge Justiniano, Los Tiempos reports.
The director of the Honduran station Radio Joconguera, Nery Orellana, was shot to death Thursday, July 14, on a road in the Honduran town of Candelaria, on the border with El Salvador, reported La Prensa. Orellana, 26 years old, is the fourth journalist killed in Honduras this year, after the killings of journalists Adán Benítez, Francisco Medina Polanco, and Luis Mendoza, owner of television station Canal 24.
Article 19, the freedom of expression defense organization, decried the cyber attack on three digital newspapers in Mexico that not only were temporarily forced offline, but also had personal information, contacts and reporters' notes stolen from the server, in the case of Expediente Quintana Roo.
Journalist Cristina Guimarães, who, along with Tim Lopes, won the Esso Journalism Prize for the series "Drug Fair," accused Brazil's TV Globo of not adequately protecting Lopes, who was killed in 2002 after receiving threats from drug traffickers in Río de Janeiro, reported the newspaper Jornal do Brasil.