Claiming that "narco-novelas" hurt the social and psychological well-being of children and adolescents, Venezuela's Nacional Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) has forbidden television stations from airing two telenovelas, or soap operas, whose main protagonists are drug dealers, reported El Universal and BBC Mundo.
Police arrested former military police officer Renato Demétrio de Souza, accusing him of the Oct. 30 shooting of José Rubem Pontes de Souza, the editor and president of Entre-Rios Jornal, in Três Rios, Rio de Janeiro. The suspect was recognized by two witnesses and arrested on Wednesday, Nov. 3. He has denied the charges.
In what the Miami Herald calls a “bold if not brazen move,” Cuban authorities have urged Spain’s government to give $155,000 to a program to counter “daily lies” in European media.
Claiming that “journalists were misusing documents and seeking data about candidates involved in the electoral campaign,” the National Archive denied researchers access to files, during recent campaigns, about the dictatorship (1964-1985), O Globo reports.
A Peruvian court has sentenced journalist José Alejandro Godoy, the head of the blog Desde el Tercer Piso (From the Third Floor), to three years in prison, a fine of $107,000, and 120 days of social work for “aggravated defamation” against former minister and congressman Jorge Mufarech, El Comercio reports.
In her acceptance speech in Brasília, President-elect Dilma Rousseff highlighted the role of the press and promised that her future government would guarantee freedom of expression.
The Online News Association (ONA) on Saturday, Oct. 30, announced the 2010 winners of the Online Journalism Awards.
Newspaper editor José Rubem Pontes de Souza, was shot to death early Saturday in front of a bar in Paraíba do Sul, in Rio de Janeiro state, O Globo newspaper reports. The other two Brazilian colleagues shot to death in 15 days are Wanderlei dos Reis in São Paulo state, and Francisco Gomes de Medeiros, whose killing in Rio Grande do Norte has been linked to his work as an investigative reporter.
U.S. voters head to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 2 , 2010, for mid-term elections, after what has been a campaign season "rife with hostile and downright bizarre encounters between candidates and the news media," according to The New York Times.
Rodolfo Maya Aricape, a renowned leader in the indigenous movement of Caloto (in the department, or state, of Cauca), was shot to death when two armed individuals broke into his home on Oct. 14, 2010, reported the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).
Félix García, a correspondent for several online media outlets and Radio ORO in the southern state of Oaxaca, has reported being attacked by alleged members of the state’s investigative police force, El Universal reports.
The Foundation for the Freedom of the Press in Colombia and the weekly newspaper ZETA in Tijuana, Mexico, were honored Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010, for being two recipients of this year's Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, reported the Associated Press.