With President Dilma Rousseff's signature on Friday, Nov. 18, Brazil became the 89th country in the world to approve a freedom of information law, reported the Forum of Public Information Access. The law, which guarantees public access to government data and documents as well as private entities that receive public funding, will take effect in six months.
Human Rights Watch asked the Ecuadorian government to repeal all insult and defamation laws against public officials, the New York-based human rights organization announced.
Faring about on par with Asia, better than Africa but worse than Europe, only about 38 percent of countries in Latin America were fully responsive to freedom of information requests filed by the Associated Press (AP) as part of a 105-country-wide project, the AP told the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. In general, more than half of countries don't abide by their freedom of information laws, MediaBistro noted.
Following accusations of corruption involving Carlos Lupi, Brazilian minister of Labor and Employment, Lupi ordered the stories being investigated by the media to be leaked on one of the ministry's blogs, reported Terra.
In the midst of rising social tensions sparked by ongoing student protests in Chile, with violent results for some journalists, Reporters Without Borders denounced new threats against freedom of information in the South American country following cyber attacks on three news sites on Nov. 4.
The Attorney General’s office in Bolivia requested a list of the journalists who covered the oppression of indigenous peoples who participated in the protest march for the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory, according to the newspaper La Razón.
A tourism business owner in the Amazonian region of Peru burst into a church threatening the Catholic radio station Ucamara in the city of Nauta to stop interfering in his business, reported the Press and Society Institute.
In 1995, academic and media analyst Sergio Aguayo ruffled feathers when he asked what was the president of Mexico's salary.
In an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, editor Julie Lopez of Plaza Pública in Guatemala speaks about how the online, non-profit news site, aimed at providing an alternative perspective "not subject to political and economic pressures," got started, launching on Feb. 22, 2011. See below the video of her interview (in Spanish).
Plaza Pública is an online, independent, non-profit newspaper that began at the start of this year in Guatemala. In an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, journalist Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, founder and director of the site, described the newspaper as a platform in which citizens can discuss and debate and hold others accountable. Plaza Pública has dedicated itself to investigating and covering topics that the traditional Guatemalan press has considered taboo, such as the agrarian situation, corruption among governments and businesses, and drug trafficking. As Guatemala's presidentia
The Human Rights Foundation sent a letter to the judges of the Second Criminal Chamber of Ecuador’s National Court of Justice asking them to accept an appeal of the libel sentence against journalist Emilio Palacio and the owners of the El Universo newspaper, reported the same organization. The accused face three years in prison and $40 million in damages.
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, a group of journalists and organizations defending human rights appeared at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in Washington D.C., to present the problems that are affecting freedom of expression in Ecuador.