The Mexican authorities have released journalist Jesús Lemus Barajas, the founder of El Tiempo newspaper, who had been held for three years on charges of having ties to the drug trafficking cartels he was investigating for the paper, EFE reports.
Photographer Marcela Rodíguez, a correspondent for Mapuexpress, was arrested while covering a May 13 protest in the southern Chilean city of Temuco against the construction of new hydroelectric dams, Periodistas en Español reports.
Brazil's National Association of Newspapers (ANJ in Portuguese) has announced that it will award the 2011 Press Freedom Prize to the Argentine newspaper Clarín, reported the news agency EFE.
Journalists in Campina Grande, the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraíba, marched May 17 against the local government for data restrictions adopted by the police and the Institute of Forensic Medicine, PB Agora reports.
Journalist Esmael Morais, whose blog was taken down by the courts at the request of Paraná state governor Beto Richa, has launched a column that will be published via Facebook and Twitter, Blog do Miro reports.
The criminal court of Lima, Perú, began a new trial for the killing of a journalist, named Alberto Rivera, who was shot by hitmen in April 2004 after denouncing a mayor for corruption, according to La República.
Journalist and political activist Wilfred Iván Ojeda Peralta was found dead of a bullet wound to the head in the northern city of Revenga, Aragua, Reuters reported. Ojeda’s body was discovered Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
Multivisión (MVS), the same Mexican broadcaster that fired a journalist in February 2011 for commenting on opposition allegations that President Felipe Calderón was an alcoholic, has created an ombudsman position at the station, El Informador reports.
Reiterating statements by other organizations about the dangers the Latin American press faces, Amnesty International has issued a new report that names Latin America as one of the most dangerous regions in the world for journalists, according to CNN.
After a workshop on teaching border reporting held April 29-May 1 at the University of Arizona, journalism educators from nine U.S. colleges have joined forces to establish the Border Journalism Network/La Red de Periodismo de la Frontera, according to a University of Arizona statement.
With the Committee to Protect Journalists reporting 861 journalists killed in the line of duty since 1992, and another 145 in prison currently, YouTube has launched a journalist memorial video channel, according to ReadWriteWeb.
Márcio Pin and Otávio Alves, the owners of Tribuna do Estado and Vida Mídia newspapers, were arrested May 12 in Brasnorte, Mato Grosso, accused of attempting to extort the city’s mayor, Mauro Rui Heisler, Terra reports.