In the Brazilian city of São José do Rio Preto, in the state of São Paulo, journalist Allan de Abreu has been indicted for allegedly disseminating secret court information, reported Diário da Região, the newspaper where Abreu works.
Journalists from the Brazilian channel SporTV were attacked by fans of the Argentine soccer team River Plate, in Buenos Aires, after the team's 2-0 loss to Belgrano, another Argentine team, reported Terra.
A Mexican journalist was seriously injured in the head and received a 12 cm.-long cut in the face on Sunday, June 19, in the southern state of Chiapas, reported El Economista. Another reporter was mentioned as a possible suspect responsible for the attack.
Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa is questioning the independence of some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country, accusing them of receiving funding from the U.S. international development agency, USAID. Among the organizations Correa is accusing are the Andean Foundation for the Observation and Study of Media (FUNDAMEDIOS in Spanish) and the movement Citizen Participation, both of which have been critical of the president's communications policies, reported the newspaper Opinión.
Starting this Thursday, June 30, the 6th International Investigative Journalism Congress will be held in São Paulo, organized by the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association (Abraji in Portuguese).
Some scholars link the presence of a freedom of information law in a county to its level of social and economic development. After all, the first country to pass such a law was Sweden, a nation that charts highly on human development indices. The second was Finland, another place considered among the best in the world to live. The United States was the third country to pass a law guaranteeing access to public information.
The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) issued two alerts for journalists who were attacked and threatened on university campuses in Peru and Venezuela.
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.