A 16th Cuban journalist has been released from prison and gone into exile in Spain, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
In what has been characterized as a “blow to the media,” the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador declared unconstitutional a section of the penal code that exempted media, reporters, editors and owners from legal responsibility for defamation. According to the ruling, the law violated the principle of equality, reported El Mundo and El Faro.
The Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (ADEPA) said in its annual report that President Cristina Fernández's government acts as if journalism is "an enemy” and warned that pressure on the media from the authorities is degrading freedom of expression.
Gerardo Rodriguez, editor of the Mexican newspaper El Diario de Juarez, spoke with NPR during an interview about violence, impunity, and the editorial the newspaper published Sunday, Sept. 19, asking drug cartels for a truce.
The chain Radio France Internationale (RFI) came out in defense of its correspondent in Caracas, Venezuela, journalist Andreína Flores, whom President Hugo Chavez during a press conference accused of being ignorant and wanting to manipulate information, reported El Universal.
Forty-five journalists and representatives from media organizations from 20 countries gathered Sept. 17-18, 2010, in Austin, Texas, for the 8th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas. The Forum is organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations' programs for Latin America and the media.
Beto Richa (PSDB), a candidate for governor of Paraná state won an Electoral Court ruling preventing media outlets from publishing poll results by several media outlets including Vox Popili, commissioned by TV Bandeirantes; Datafolha, commissioned by Folha de S. Paulo; and Ibope, commissioned by RPCTV; Terra and iG report. The polls had not changed their methodology since they originally registered with the Electoral Court.
Thieves made off with computers and several USB drives from the house of Ignacio Gómez, a TV news host and the president of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). For the journalist, one of the targets of illegal spying by the Administrative Department of Security (Colombia’s intelligence agency – DAS), this is the fifth robbery in seven years.
An injunction by the Regional Electoral Court in Tocantins state says 84 media outlets are not allowed to publish or broadcast news about a criminal investigation into the state’s incumbent gubernatorial candidate, Carlos Gaguim (PMDB), writes Veja reporter Reinaldo Azevedo. Gaguim’s campaign team formally complained to the court that such reports involved the use of journalism with the political goal of supporting rival candidates.
The Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper Extra carried a front-page image of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the King of Hearts to make fun of his recent remarks against the media.
After spending 2009 as a Nieman fellow at Harvard, Mexican-American journalist Alfredo Corchado realized he had no desire to continue putting his life on the line, covering Mexican drug cartels and violence. So when he returned to Mexico as bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, he felt "numb," he said, "separated from the story."
Media directors and journalists say they are skeptical of the the government’s newly announced protective measures against attacks from organized crime, EFE reports.