The open tension between Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and the press intensified in recent days amid accusations of corruption and conspiracy among the media and allegations of government censorship and freedom of expression violations, reported the local press.
Last year, ABC Digital - the online edition of ABC Color newspaper – developed a space for users to send their stories and photos, with allegations, announcements, claims, and complaints. Today, more than 25 stories are submitted by citizens daily. We have enough content to publish one an hour, and we have designed a “Positive Stories” section for readers to submit untold stories of courage, good deeds by the authorities, and acts of good citizenship.
A special court in San Salvador sentenced 11 of the 31 suspects charged in the 2009 killing of a photographer to between four and 30 years in prison, reported EFE and La Prensa Gráfica.
Gabino Cue, governor for the Mexican state of Oaxaca, has created a special prosecutor's office to re-open the investigations into the deaths of 26 people -- including New York journalist Bradley Will -- who were killed during protests against the government in 2006, reported Milenio and the Associated Press.
With Rosalía Orozco, former director of the journalism program at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico, taking over as the new director of the university’s Digital Journalism Training Center, the center is planning new courses and redesigning its website, according to the university and the News Entrepeneurs blog.
The Costa Rican Journalists’ Guild has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to sue the government for not investigating one of the worst attacks on the press in Central American history, El País reports.
São Paulo police recaptured Wilson de Moraes da Silva, who was convicted for the death of journalist Ivandel Godinho Júnior, Globo Notícias reports. The journalist was kidnapped in 2003 and his body was found and identified by a DNA test in 2006. The police found the fugitive after an anonymous tip claimed that Silva was selling drugs in a house in São Paulo.
In recognition of International Women's Day on Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders released a report on the problems women journalists face in their work, according to QMI Agency. The report, "News Media: A Men’s Preserve that is Dangerous for Women," highlights problems such as segregation, violence, and inequality in the newsroom.
A top official in the Social Defense Secretariat in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, Colonel Elías Augusto Siqueira de Souza, was fired last week after pressuring a local journalist to reveal his sources, Folha de Pernambuco reports.
The Brazilian Senate is considering a proposed Constitutional amendment that would make Internet access a right for all citizens, according to El Nuevo Herald. Sen. Rodrigo Rollemberg, author of the proposal, wants to make the government responsible for providing Internet access to everyone.
Journalists working for big media companies and their independent blogger colleagues are facing the same problem: the risk of lawsuits for their work.
Just two days after the release of a report on the state of press freedom in Mexico that denounced increasing police and military aggression against reporters, a photographer for the Televisa station was arrested and beaten by security agents in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on Friday, March 4, reported local press.