The Chamber of Deputies passed a 2011 federal budget that includes more than $2 million for journalist life insurance, El Universal reports. The funds are set to go towards medical services, funeral costs, and damages.
Panama's Latin American Journalism Center (CELAP in Spanish) will conduct the regional forum “Investigative Journalism Against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime” on Nov. 18–19, 2010, in Panama City, Panama. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is a co-sponsor of the event.
Journalists in Central America aren't prepared to deal with covering the violence, organized crime and drug trafficking that is moving south from Mexico, said Carlos Dada, editor and founder of El Salvador's digital newspaper El Faro and winner of the 2010 Latin American Studies Association Media Award.
Since she began her career as a journalist in the medium-sized city of Juiz de Fora at the age of 22, Daniela Arbex was always told she needed to move to Rio de Janiero, São Paulo, or Brasília to have an impact. But she decided to stay and work for Tribuna de Minas, a paper with a circulation of 15,000, distributed in a city of around 600,000 people. It was here that she became a renowned Brazilian investigative journalist.
The Superior Military Court (STM) has given the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper access to documents on President-elect Dilma Rousseff’s arrest and imprisonment during the dictatorship (1964-1985), Folha reports. Carlos Alberto Soares, the court’s top justice, had previously denied the paper access to the information, saying he was attempting to prevent it from being used for political purposes during the presidential election campaign.
Journalist Rodrigo Sepúlveda of Radio Nihuil in Mendoza, Argentina, was robbed and threatened by three armed men who stole his cell phone and wallet while he was broadcasting live on Tuesday from the La Gloria neighborhood, the newspaper Los Andes reports. Listeners could hear the incident live until the gunmen took the broadcaster's phone and turned it off.
Yoani Sánchez, the dissident author of the blog Generación Y, was honored for her work toward free expression in Cuba by the Denmark-based Center for Political Studies (CEPOS), AFP reports.
The deadline for Cuba to release 52 political prisoners came and went Sunday night, Nov. 14, and as of Monday, 13 remained imprisoned, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Associated Press. The prisoners were arrested in March 2003 during a crackdown on dissidents and independent journalists known as "Black Spring."
During its 66th general assembly meeting Nov. 5-9, 2010, in Merida, Mexico, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) voted in its new board of directors for 2010-2013.
Angélica Ramírez, a well-known host on a TV station in Huila department, was arrested Nov. 15, El Espectador reports. The police accused her of connections with the FARC guerilla organization and charged her with extortion, terrorism, and the illegal trafficking of weapons, El Tiempo explains.
Líbero newspaper’s Gustavo Peralta accused several police officers of “abuse of authority and battery,” La República reports. According to the journalist, the officers broke his arm while he was covering a soccer game on Saturday, Nov. 13.
Several journalists were tear-gassed and beaten by security at a hotel in Cancún that was the site of a Sunday explosion that left seven dead and 18 wounded, La Crónica de Hoy and El Universal report.