After publishing a story on drug dealing in an Uruguayan prison, La República newspaper reporter Víctor Carrato received emailed threats, Montevideo Portal reports.
Cuba is one of the top two nations in the world with the worst record of forcing journalists into exile, said the Committee to Protect Journalists in a new report.
Journalist Miguel Ángel López Velasco, a security and drug trafficking expert, was killed in his home with his wife and son in the eastern port city of Veracruz, The Associated Press reports. López is the second Mexican journalist killed in less than a week, in the midst of unrelenting attacks against the press, which also includes the kidnapping of another reporter 11 days ago.
Brazilian journalist Wagner Florêncio Império is being investigated by São Paulo police for allegedly using his position as a reporter to obtain secret information about police investigations and give that information to tax fraud suspects in the city of Taboão da Serra, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
Just as journalistic organizations in Ecuador and Paraguay are complaining about the use of laws against the press aimed at silencing journalistis, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) released a statement expressing concern about the "deterioration of freedom of expression and press freedom on the American continent," reported La Prensa.
Pictures of the Year International (POYi) and the Nuestra Mirada network of Latin American photographers honored 18 visual journalism projects in the first POYi Latin America Visual Journalism Contest. The winners will be honored at the Fiesta de Imagen (Image Party) in Cuenca, Ecuador in July.
Norte newspaper, based in the U.S.-Mexico border city of Cuidad Juárez, denounced a series of incidents against its reporters by federal police forces tasked with fighting organized crime and drug trafficking, the National Center for Social Communication (CENCOS in Spanish) reports. The paper is renowned for continuing to cover drug trafficking issues in Mexico’s deadliest city.
Press, legal, and human rights groups are united in their opposition to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s decision to allow permanent secrecy for official documents as part of a pending information access law.
On the floor of the Brazilian Senate, legislators called for a vote “as soon as possible” on a constitutional amendment reestablishing the requirement to hold a media-related degree to practice journalism, Agência Senado reports.
A corruption scandal involving a top official at the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights group, the country’s most prominent voice against the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983), has led media outlets and journalists to accuse each other of biasing coverage for political ends.
In spite of promises from media outlets and the Mexican authorities to improve protection for journalists exposed to drug trafficking violence, attacks against the press are unceasing, prompting media workers to take to the streets to pressure the government to end the violence.
The Supreme Court of Colombia ruled on May 25 that criminal defamation is constitutional, prompting criticism from freedom of expression advocates, Article 19 reports via IFEX.