Barely a week after Honduran journalist Francisco Medina Polanco was killed, Luis Mendoza – the owner of the Canal 24 TV station – was gunned down by masked men on May 19, 2011, The Associated Press reports.
Federal prosecutors in Brazil announced charges against João Dorileo Leal, a top executive at Grupo Gazeta, the largest media company in Mato Grosso state, for laundering money earned from illegal gambling, Folha de São Paulo reports.
Bolivian media outlets are applauding President Evo Morales’s plans to change a law that severely restricted coverage of judiciary elections, Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP) reports via IFEX.
Journalists from TV RBA and Diário do Pará newspaper were not allowed to witness statements made in court by Rômulo Maiorana Jr. on May 18, Diário Online reports.
The Brazilian police used tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets against protesters and journalists covering a May 21 march in São Paulo in favor of marijuana legalization and freedom of expression, iG reports.
Spain announced that it has been negotiating on behalf on one of its jailed citizens, journalist Sebastián Martínez Ferraté, to determine why he has been held for 10 months in a Cuban prison without being formally charged, the Associated Press reports.
Journalist Yensi Roberto Ordóñez was found dead of apparent stab wounds inside a car in the southern Guatemalan city of Nueva Concepción, Escuintla, EFE reports.
In two separate incidents, journalists in Ecuador say they are being targeted for their critical reporting on the powerful. In the first case, Fundamedios reports via IFEX that a prosecutor in the coastal city of Manta is suing five directors and journalists who work for the Ediasa media group for libel over an article reporting allegations that he accepted a bribe.
A retired police general was called to testify about the kidnapping and sexual abuse of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya in 2000, reported the Associated Press (AP).
Fernando Collor de Mello, an impeached ex president and current senator, has once again ruined the government’s plan to quickly pass a law regulating access to classified documents, iG reports.
Two reporters were attacked by a Peruvian presidential candidate's bodyguards, while two other journalists reported threats and censorship as the tension continues to grow in the buildup to the second round of voting in the presidential election, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports via IFEX.
Keeping with the domestic and international trend, the UOL news site has released a set of guidelines for social media usage by its journalists, Liberdade Digital reports.