Journalists covering police protests in the Amazon-region city of Porto Velho, Rondônia on May 7 and 8 were threatened and harassed by several demonstrating officers, Rondoniaovivo reports.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli is organizing a national dialogue on freedom of expression, to be held on Saturday, May 14, 2011, in response to allegations of threats and abuse perpetrated by government officials against journalists, EFE reports.
Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, ordered the country's media to show more patriotism and support the government's strategy of bringing Chile before an international court in order to obtain access to the Pacific Ocean, according to El Deber.
Journalists and citizens from throughout Central America are coming together to discuss the "urgent" issues facing the region as part of the 2011 Central American Forum on Journalism, organized by the Salvadoran digital newspaper El Faro, or The Lighthouse. The forum got underway Monday, May 16, and will continue through Saturday, May 21, in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Cameraman Alejandro Márquez was shot in the leg May 10, 2011, during violent disturbances in the city of Medellín, Colombia, Caracol Radio reports.
The Office of the Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the recent deaths of two Brazilian journalists: Valério Nascimento and Luciano Leitão Pedrosa, Folha de São Paulo reports.
Five years after its creation, a Portuguese version of the micro-blogging service Twitter is in the works, the site announced. According to Terra, the site is looking to crowdsource the translation to volunteers.
A series of videos that attack Panamanian journalists, especially those at La Prensa newspaper, were released at the end of April. Reporters without Borders (RSF) argues that their release is related to the publication of WikiLeaks cables that were not to President Ricardo Martinelli’s liking.
Nearly two years after the requirement to hold a media-related degree to practice journalism was declared unconstitutional by the Brazilian Supreme Court, bills supporting the reinstatement of the requirement are advancing in legislatures nationwide.
Approximately 40 journalists from different media outlets in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura walked out of their workplaces on May 9, 2011 to protest threats and violence faced by reporters in the region, El País reports.
César Lévano, director of the Peruvian newspaper La Primera, and Arturo Belaúnde, president of the same newspaper, received funeral wreaths in the midst of a tense presidential election campaign, according to La República.
Journalist Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco, who reported on land conflicts with ranchers and alleged corruption in the northwestern city of Morazán, became at least the 12th journalist killed in the past 18 months in Honduras, the Associated Press reports.