Journalists, public officials, and police chiefs in the northern border state of Chihuahua, one of the areas most effected by drug violence in recent years, are planning to create the country’s first "security protocol for journalists that cover risky areas," Devenir and Ahoramismo report.
In statements to prosecutors, an ex intelligence agency offical said that President Álvaro Uribe and several of his confidants knew about the Administrative Department of Security's (DAS) wiretaps and spying on journalists, judges, opposition leaders, and human rights activists. The incriminating testimony by the former director of DAS is the first that has directly connected the president to the spy scandal, El Nuevo Herald and La Silla Vacia report.
Prosecutors have asked journalist José Pomacusi, the director of the magazine Poder y Placer (Power and Pleasure) and the TV show No Mentiras (No Lies) to explain his alleged connections to a terrorist organization in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, EFE reports. He has asked the prosecution to "clear his name" and "respect free expression," Los Tiempos adds.
An internal government document classifies journalists as “acceptable” or not depending on their ideology and recommends ways of punishing “unacceptable” journalists, for example, by delaying press releases, the Associated Press reports. The Uruguayan Press Association said the two-year old document, which was publicized last week, is reminiscent of tactics used during the country’s military dictatorship.
Four journalism organizations are oppenly opposing a new electoral law, enacted three weeks ago, which they say violates free expression. (Read the full text PDF of the law in Spanish here.)
Renowned journalist Hollman Morris can now travel to the United States and attend Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, after the Department of State decided to grant Morris the student visa that it had originally denied him, the Nieman Foundation reports.
A new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says the government is “fostering a climate of lawlessness” that has led to the deaths of nine media workers this year, including seven in just two months.
At a time when journalists are targets of organized crime and violence against reporters goes largely unpunished, declaring an editorial war against corruption and drug trafficking seems suicidal. According to Prodavinci’s Oscar Medina, this is precisely the journey upon which the weekly Tijuana-based news magazine Zeta has embarked.
“The Impact of Digital Technology on Journalism and Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean,” by Guillermo Franco, published by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations Media Program, is now available in English and Spanish and can be downloaded in PDF format for free on the Knight Center’s website.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a decree that created an intergovernmental commission to propose changes to the regulatory system that governs broadcast media, O Estado de S. Paulo reports.
“Betrayed” is the work used in an editorial by the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York, El Diario-La Prensa, to describe sentiment in the newsroom after one of its journalist pleaded guilty to being part of a Russian spy ring.
Journalist Herbin Hoyos, of the program “Voices of Kidnapping” (Voces del Secuestro), was awarded the Tolerance Prize by the Community of Madrid for his fight for freedom and coexistence, EFE reports.