A crew for RBS TV, an affiliate of TV Globo in the southern state of Santa Catarina, was attacked and threatened Jan. 6 in the city of Indaial, while investigating charges against five business people accused of boycotting wholesalers in the neighboring city of Brusque, Globo reports.
El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes sent back to the Legislative Assembly a bill that would create a public information access law, asking for various modifications and clarifications, reported El Faro.
The Argentine government spent $27 million on broadcast TV advertising in 2010, and 67.5% of the funds went to Canal 9, the most watched channel in the country, La Nación reports. According to Clarín, opposition lawmakers have called for an immediate investigation into government spending on ads.
Bolivia has approved the final rules governing the “Law to Fight against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination,” which was passed by Congress and signed by President Evo Morales in October, Bolpress reports. Many media organizations criticized the bill for articles in it that they say violate freedom of expression.
Transparency and public information access advocates accused the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of censoring information about investigations against politicians and public officials, O Globo reports.
Via YouTube, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has released a series of videos about the impact of violence and the risks journalists confront in the so-called "triple frontier" region between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
The National Telecommunications Council (Conatel) of Ecuador ordered the closure of radio broadcaster La Voz de la Esmeralda Oriental Canela and rejected an appeal by the owner, journalist Wilson Cabrera, who is fighting the non-renewal of the radio's frequency, reported Fundamedios/IFEX.
The president of the government-run National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Raúl Plascencia, said killings, disappearances, and kidnappings of media workers and activists will be a priority for the agency in 2011, Milenio reports.
President Porfirio Lobo’s government has asked for the help of the United States, Colombia, and Spain to help investigate the killings of ten Honduran journalists who died in 2010, El Heraldo reports.
A Buenos Aires judge has ruled that demonstrators cannot block access to AGR, a printing company owned by the Clarín media group, and said the Security Ministry must take steps to guarantee the company’s ability to print, Clarín and La Nación newspapers report.
Recently inaugurated President Dilma Rouseff’s new communications minister, Paulo Bernardo, defended the need for a new regulatory framework for the sector, during his speech at the Jan. 3 handover ceremony, Terra reports.
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights presented a complaint against Argentina before the Inter-American Court of the Organization of American States for violating the freedom of expression of two journalists who 15 years ago revealed that ex-President Carlos Menem had a child out of wedlock.