The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned an “aggressive" television ad campaign by the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa against independent news media.
A cameraman for Jamaican television station CVM was assaulted by police and then temporarily detained for attempting to film an alleged police shooting of a shopkeeper in St. Ann, reported RJR News.
The newspaper Jornal do Brasil, published for 119 years in Rio de Janeiro, is conducting research among its readers to decide whether to do away with the print version and offer only a digital edition. The newspaper published a half-page announcement on June 30 inviting its readers to respond.
In a letter to the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mexican President Felipe Calderón acknowledges a letter CPJ sent him a month ago about the increase in the number of cases of attacks and harassment by security forces against the press. The president said that the complaint was sent to the Attorney General's office, which will offer a response.
Vicky Peláez will be placed under house arrest and be forced to wear an electronic monitor, while the other nine suspects arrested for spying for Russia remain in custody, reported Reuters. Bail for the Peruvian journalist was set at $250,000, and she could be released as soon as next week, added El Comercio.
The government of Álvaro Colom has denounced a supposed plot to destabilize the country by various groups who are supported by "biased media" that "sell their pens to the highest bidder,” reported Siglo XXI and EFE.
The Interior Minister has blamed Clarín media group owner, Ernestina Herrera de Noble, and her two children for difficulties in determining whether the siblings Marcela and Felipe Noble were adopted from parents who disappeared during the military dictatorship (1976-1983), Europa Press reports. The minister accused them of obstructing justice.
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.