Amidst the “information blackout” generated by drug trafficking violence along the U.S.-Mexican border, social network sites have transformed into a fundamental information source for citizens, but they cannot replace Mexican journalism, said veteran Mexican journalist Jacinto Rodríguez, who spoke recently at the University of Texas at Austin about journalism and violence.
The director of the community radio station La Voz de Zacate Grande, who also is a peasant leader in the island of Zacate in the south of Honduras, was shot in the leg and hospitalized March 13, reported the newspaper La Prensa Gráfica.
Mario Caro, a reporter for Radio Kollasuyo, told Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP) that the Potosí city prosecutor has charged him for allegedly libeling local authorities in his stories, ANP reports via IFEX.
After La Prensa newspaper unilaterally decided to stop publishing photos of dead bodies to avoid sensationalizing the increase in violence in the country, the Honduras Journalists’ Guild (CPH) and the government are now working towards an agreement that would remove violent photos from newspaper covers, La Tribuna reports.
A group of civil society organizations is demanding greater safety and protection for journalists and human rights activists in Mexico, especially in the eastern and northern regions of the country where the most aggression occurs, reported the newspaper La Jornada.
The International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth of the United Nations Development Program and Mercado Ético released a report “Investigative Journalism: Themes for a South-South Debate,” that considers the role investigative reporting can play in developing countries.
Cameraman Arturo Sandoval, from Canal 2 Frecuencia Latina, was taken to the hospital after being hit by the car driving Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala to a debate in Lima, La República reports.
Alexandre Rolim, journalist for the news site Parecis.net, accused Mauro Berft, mayor of Campo Novo do Parecis, in the state of Mato Grosso, of having threatened and attacked him on March 11. According to the reporter, the mayor was upset by some articles Rolim had published.
Barely a month after the launch of The Daily, the first media outlet exclusively published on the iPad tablet device, Brasil 247 will be the first such publication in Brazil, Mac World Brasil reports. The media launched earlier this week and – unlike its U.S. counterpart – it is free.
While traditional print media outlets in the U.S. and Europe are losing readers and revenue, Latin American newspapers are growing at a sustained pace and still have potential for further growth, says Christoph Riess, the executive director of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
A panel of three Mexican judges lifted a ban on the film "Presumed Guilty," a widely popular yet controversial documentary that exposes faults in the country’s justice system, the BBC said last week.
The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Organization of American States (OAS), Catalina Botero, said she was concerned with critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the press facing libel suits, license suspensions, and broad “stigmatization,” El Universal reports.