In nearly eight years of anticipation for the 2016 Olympic Games, the reporters who occupied the city of Rio de Janeiro tried to understand one of the most complex Carioca characteristics to "translate:" the favelas. Between 2008 and 2016, the volume of articles published in the international press that mentioned these communities rose almost seven times, to a total of 1,094 reports.
“We are in an abusive relationship with our tech gadgets, and we believe they may be possessed by the Chupadados.” This is how the Chupadados project, launched in December 2016, aims to record, through texts and infographics, how technological equipment and services are used in Latin America to collect, store and even sell personal data - often without knowledge of the users.
How can you explain the process of transformation of public policies of communication promoted by the initiatives of civil society in Latin American countries in recent years?
“We are going to make a confession: in Colombia, journalists publish much less than what they know.” Thus begins the promotion video of the newly-formed network of journalists called The League Against Silence, which, through its first activity, is seeking resources to cover the most self-censored issues in the country.
“We are going to make a confession: in Colombia, journalists publish much less than what they know.” Thus begins the promotion video of the newly-formed network of journalists called The League Against Silence, which, through its first activity, is seeking resources to cover the most self-censored issues in the country.
International organization Chicas Podererosas (Powerful Girls) recently launched its Venezuelan chapter with a workshop on analysis and programming, as well as a “hackathon” of public data.
In 2001, American photojournalist Leslie Mazoch landed her dream job at the Associated Press (AP), one of the most well-known, international wire services. She moved to Venezuela to begin her career where for the next six years she would photograph financial, political and social issues in the Latin American country.
It consists of three floors and 300 square meters on a tree-lined street in Botafogo, in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. A noble space, inside and out, dedicated to journalism. The facade is old, well-maintained, with pink-painted walls and white details. On the inside, there are high ceilings adorned by a sumptuous glass chandelier. The dark wood floors and windows, as well as the staircase, give off a warm air.
The 2016 election season in Brazil put Ctrl+X, a platform created to monitor lawsuits that demand the removal of content from the internet, to the test. The site found that “electoral lawsuits,” one of the subsets of legal proceedings tracked by the site, increased 33 percent in recent municipal elections in 2016 when compared to the elections of 2012. In many of these cases, politicians and parties go through designated electoral courts to sue journalists and get information removed from the internet.
For journalist Iván Flores Poveda, the presidential elections that will take place in Ecuador in February 2017 represent “a democratic transition.” After 10 years in power, President Rafael Correa decided not to put his hat in the ring for the position. However, according to Flores, the president has become a kind of campaign manager for the ticket of Lenín Moreno and Jorge Glass, the former and current vice presidents under Correa.
Following the lead of other fact-checking collaborations in the region, four Brazilian fact-checking projects will harness their collective experiences and talents to analyze an upcoming debate between the two remaining candidates for mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
“Stolen Memory” is the investigation that led to the creation of the first journalistic platform that collects massive data on illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts from Latin American countries. It is a project of Peruvian digital investigative journalism site Ojo Público, which invited four important media in the region to participate in a transnational and collaborative investigation.