U.S. soldiers had been in Haiti 11 days before they got the first copies of Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that operates independently within the military structure and follows troops to war fronts. Editor & Publisher and The New York Times both report on the logistics of getting Stars and Stripes into the hands of military women and men who are deployed overseas.
The vehicle of Adriana Aguirre San Millán was set ablaze outside the radio chain's offices in in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and a message left beside it warned that the same will happen to all other journalists, La Jornada and El Universal report. Aguirre owns the radio chain Organización Impulsora de Radio (OIR).
Jose Luis Romero, a reporter for the Línea Directa radio station who was known for his broadcasts on drug trafficking, was found shot to death Saturday on a highway a few miles from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, where he was kidnapped two weeks ago. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reuters and the Associated Press have stories in English, and many sources have stories in Spanish.
The rash of attacks on Mexican journalists has resulted in the first assassination this year. Two reporters from the newspaper Zócalo Saltillo were kidnapped Thursday night, and one of them, Valentín Valdés Espinosa, was found dead outside a motel this morning (Jan. 8) with a warning note on his chest, the newspaper reports. The message's contents were not revealed.
Chile's Law of Transparency and Access to Public information, which took effect last April, is helping national and international organizations that are seeking information about people who disappeared during the military dictatorship. Those people include U.S. citizen Boris Weisfeiler, Inter Press Service reports (in Spanish).
Judith Torrea, a Spanish-born reporter, has covered U.S.–Mexico border issues such as the drug trade, immigration, and border policy for nine years. She was attracted to Ciudad Juárez since her first visit 12 years ago, despite its naming by a Mexican watchdog group as the world’s most violent city.
In a diplomatic offensive against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez warned that the diffusion of videos by the rebel group represent an "apology for organized crime and terrorism," the AFP news service and Radio Caracol report (in Spanish).
Don’t expect relations between Hugo Chávez and the U.S. media to improve in 2010. Venezuela’s government long ago declared war on “media terrorism,” its term for news organizations that criticize Chávez from within and outside the country. Chávez recently slammed the U.S. magazine Newsweek for its predictions that in 2010 Chávez faces another coup and that his mentor Fidel Castro will die this year in Cuba.
Ecuador's 14 indigenous nationalities will be able to present proposals that will help them get low-frequency radio permits for at least one citizen-based, "community radio" station in each nation, El Telégrafo newspaper reports. Guidelines should be available in two weeks.
A military policeman (Carabinero) will stand trial for the assault in May 2008 of Victor Salas, a correspondent for Spain's EFE news agency, The Santiago Times reports. Salas was covering a protest outside Chile's parliament in Valparaiso when he was struck in the head by a mounted police officer. He later lost his vision in one eye.
To investigate the unpunished assassination of Guillermo Cano, who was shot by hitmen 23 years ago in Bogotá outside the offices of his family's newspaper, El Espectador, a team of Colombian journalists have produced this excellent multimedia report: 23 Years of Impunity and Silence.
Some 40 reporters held a vigil outside the attorney general's office in Los Mochis, Sinaloa (NW Mexico), insisting that authorities quicken their response to the abduction of José Luis Romero, crime reporter for the Línea Directa radio station. A state official acknowledged there were no advances in the case, Línea Directa and La Jornada report.