The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is offering the free multilingual online course "How to Cover the Climate Crisis — and Fight Disinformation." Over a four-week period, students will learn about climate science and climate journalism, and disinformation efforts targeting them.
Journalists from Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela are using innovative methodologies, strategies and tech tools to address the environmental and social conflicts that threaten the Amazon, without putting themselves at risk by going deep into the rainforest.
Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, who for two decades experienced psychological torture, life in exile and persecution for a journalistic investigation, said that the recent decision of the highest court of Colombian public administration is the most important in the fight for justice in the face of violations of her human rights.
The Mexican organization Causa Natura has launched the Journalism Network of the Sea (Repemar), an initiative that seeks to coordinate journalists interested in marine issues, provide support, guidance, training and financing opportunities. The network also wants to support environmental journalists and minimize the risks suffered when practicing the profession in Mexico.
Twenty-two journalists were murdered in Latin American countries between January and June 2022. Data are from the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC). The number is higher than the total number of journalists killed in countries in the region last year: 17. It is also higher than journalists killed in coverage of the war in Ukraine: 16 in the same period.
Statistical data shows that in the last three years, the most common response of the Guatemalan public prosecutor to cases of attacks against journalists was dismissal. Only 1 percent of the cases end up with a conviction. Under Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, the budget to investigate crimes against this profession was reduced by 77 percent.
Argentine-based journalists were selected to participate in a program on how to cover the impact of algorithms on society, while news outlets from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Paraguay are participating in a collaborative challenge to develop artificial intelligence tools to enhance the work of journalists.
The survey "Perfil do Jornalista Brasileiro 2021" heard from 7,000 journalists between August and October of last year to draw a current portrait of the journalism profession in Brazil. The final report shows transformations as well as continuities in the journalism scene since the first survey in 2012. Among them is the deepening precariousness of the profession during the last ten years, as shown by low wages, long working hours, and an increase in precarious forms of employment.
The only office that exists in Honduras to investigate violence against journalists and protect this vulnerable group is the FEPRODDHH, but it has only five prosecutors – all based in Tegucigalpa – without assigned investigators and without legal jurisdiction to investigate murders or assassinations.
The movement to give more focus and increase the visibility of LGBTI+ issues is important, but journalists must be careful not to reproduce misinformation or stigmatize groups that have historically been vulnerable and silenced. Camilla Figueiredo, co-founder of the independent, non-profit organization Agência Diadorim, in Brazil, talks about best practices in content production and in the search for specialized sources on the subject.
Attacks with stones, sticks, boiling liquids, threats, and hindrance to access information are some of the aggressions the press has experienced so far while covering the protests that began on June 13 in Ecuador.
The Chapultepec Index of Freedom of Expression and Press shows the evolution of the indicators of freedom in the practice of journalism between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The Executive Branch appears to be most influential in unfavorable situations for the press in the Americas.