Exactly a decade ago, the government of Guatemala committed to creating a plan to protect press workers in the face of growing attacks. That happened in 2012 during a government favorable to the idea, yet all these years later, it still hasn’t been achieved. Some journalists point to a distrust between the government and the press as a source of the problem.
Threats and obstacles to journalism in the digital environment will be the topics discussed during this year's commemoration of World Press Freedom Day. Progress will also be analyzed on journalists' safety and impunity, on the 10th anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on this issue.
A surveillance environment in Venezuela has led to the beginning of doubt against free expression – the beginning of self-censorship. Venezuelan journalists have had to find a way to reinvent themselves between censorship, threats, misinformation and media sanctions.
The Contratopedia Caribe, a specialized digital platform that follows the trail of public contracting in the Colombian Caribbean, held training sessions for students to introduce them to tools to access the Law of Access to Information based on the Constitution of Colombia. This project was motivated by the great vulnerabilities that exist in the right of access to public information in Colombia that affect journalism.
The Brazilian project “Journalistic accessibility: a problem that no one sees” addressed the demands of visually impaired people in order to improve their access to quality information. It surveyed people who are blind or have low vision and analyzed 21 journalistic websites. Based on that, Lume was created, an application that curates journalistic content aimed at the visually impaired. This initiative aims to broaden the understanding of diversity and inclusion in journalism.
Transgender journalist Câe Vasconcelos works to amplify the voices of the trans community in Brazil— the country with the highest recorded number of trans people murdered in the world. Although the country’s younger generations have made progress toward social acceptance and equality for trans people, there is still a lot of conservatism in their society’s culture, Vasconcelos said.
Panel members of 'Hype or not, how and when will web 3.0 (blockchain/NFTs) and the metaverse (AR/VR/XR) impact journalism?' discussed the opportunities presented by the advancement of such technologies for news organizations and how these developments will affect the media.
Four years after the social outbreak of 2018 in Nicaragua, more than 120 journalists have gone into exile, at least 20 media have been confiscated, there are no printed newspapers circulating in the country and six journalists have received sentences ranging from 7 to 13 years in prison, with fines in the millions. However, the independent Nicaraguan press continues to fight for freedom, both from inside the country and in exile.
Like other countries in the region, discussions are already taking place in Bolivia to establish a protection mechanism for journalists that would limit violence against them. For now, the projects are confidential, but the violence against journalists that launched them is visible.
Works from Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Brazil were shortlisted for the most prestigious data journalism awards among more than 600 candidates from 379 media outlets around the world. Latam Journalism Review interviewed the leaders of the Latin American projects featured in the 2022 Sigma Awards.
As part of their participation in the Collab Challenges 2021 initiative, La Nación (Argentina), Data Crítica (Mexico), AzMina (Brazil), CLIP (Costa Rica) and Ojo Público (Peru) developed projects that seek to put automated analysis of documents, images and language at the service of investigative journalism.
Over the past decade, press freedom around the world is deteriorating and the list of countries facing issues has been growing. With the testimonial of seven journalists from Asia and Latin America, ISOJ 2022 debated the state of press freedom and the serious situation reporters are recently facing in India, Hong Kong, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.