The frustration of Brazilian journalists with World Cup coverage has drawn the attention of the international press. In an interesting report this week, the New York Times contrasts the proximity and informality of the relationship between reporters and athletes during soccer games in Brazil, with the distance FIFA and coach Dunga have imposed.
The Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities (ADEPA) published a statement denouncing a recent series of threats and intimidation against journalists. Violent reactions to investigative journalism has become a tradition, the group said.
Dissident Cuban journalist Guillermo Coco Fariñas, on a hunger strike for four months, is in critical condition and risks death, reported the website Cubanet.
Not only paramilitaries, but also government agents were involved in the 1999 killing of prominent journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón. El Heraldo reported that Colombian prosecutors ordered José Miguel Narváez, the ex-deputy director of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS, or Colombia's intelligence agency), be held for ordering Garzón's death.
The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) and the Dominican Guild of Journalists (CDP) denounced the death threats and aggression against several journalists in the towns of Nagua, Montecristi and San Juan, reported Diario Digital.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) asked the Brazilian government and legislators to approve a proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow killings and attempted killings of journalists to be judged at the federal level. IAPA issued a declaration and sent to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Congress members a letter signed by newspaper readers from across the continent.
Renowned Colombian journalist Hollman Morris' U.S. visa application was rejected on June 16, The Progressive is reporting. The story did not say why the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá denied his visa.
Amnesty International reported that Cuba's repressive legal system has resulted in an atmosphere of fear for journalists, dissidents and activists, "putting them at risk of arbitrary arrest and harassment."
President Evo Morales enacted an electoral law that is drawing criticism from the opposition and the press for being a gag for the media during election times, reported La Razón.
The prosecutor's office believes it has sufficient evidence to charge Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the news station Globovisión, the only channel critical of the government still on the air in Venezuela, reported El Universal.
Journalist Márcia Pache, from TV Centro-Oeste, affiliate of SBT in Pontes e Lacerda, west of Cuiabá, was hit in the face on Monday, June 28, by Councilman Lorivaldo Rodrigues de Moraes (DEM), known as "Kirrarinha," according to the website Midia News.
Radio sports reporter Clóvis Silva Aguiar, 48 years old, was murdered Thursday night, June 24, in the city of Imperatriz, in the western part of Maranhão in Brazil, reported the newspaper Jornal Pequeno. He was in the door of his mother's house when two men on a motorcycle drove by and shot at him three times, the newspaper said.