The United States and Cuba are at opposite extremes of Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2012 report. According to the New York-based organization, the United States was ranked the second most “free” country in the world for online expression, while Cuba was listed as the second to worst.
Brazilian reporter Patrícia Cornils got a surprising response after sharing on Facebook a Google Docs worksheet listing fires in the favelas of São Paulo. Several people joined the collaborative reporting project that became Fogo no Barraco (Fire in the Shanty), an interactive map that cross references data on fires with real estate appreciation near the affected areas. The map demonstrates the journalistic possibilities of online collaboration and crowdsourcing information.
During an address to students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner told the audience "there is no independent and objective press" in Argentina, according to Multimedios Prisma.
During a shareholders' meeting for the Chilean newspaper La Nación, government representatives, who control 69 percent of the company's shares, voted to close and liquidate the storied newspaper on Monday, Sept. 24.
During election season, political coverage takes on a central role in society and journalists come under pressure to improve news gathering.
The Costa Rican presidency created its own online newspaper to promote government achievements to citizens, reported the Central American newspaper La Nación.
Ecuadorian non-governmental organization Fundamedios filed a lawsuit challenging President Rafael Correa's order that public officials not give interviews to certain media outlets, reported the website Cerigua.
Six Mexican Senators presented a bill to publish public spending for all levels of government in print and electronic media, according to the newspaper El Universal.
On Tuesday, Aug. 28, a news team from the newspaper El Nacional was detained by Venezuelan National Guard officials while trying to report on a large fire in the oil refinery of Amuay, in the state of Falcón, reported El Nacional.
An ultraconservative group in Mexico blocked the press from entering Nueva Jerusalén, a town in the state of Michoacán where a serious conflict is ongoing between secular inhabitants that confront religious fanatics for public education rights, according to the news agency Quadratin.
On Monday, Aug. 27, Brazilian civil society organizations launched the campaign "Freedom of Expression--A New Law for a New Time," reported the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication. The campaign marks the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian Telecommunications Law and calls for a new "general communication law" that defends plurality, diversity, and equal access to media and telecommunications in the South American country.
A reporter from the Brazilian newspaper Jornal da Tarde, in São Paulo, will run for city council this year 2012 elections in order to cover the campaign from a different perspective, reported the newspaper's website.