Tensions between the Costa Rican press and President Laura Chinchilla's staff came to a head when the Journalists Union of Costa Rica sent a letter to her office demanding an explanation for recent obstacles and intimidatory acts against journalists, the organization reported.
A new public initiative allows Mexicans to use social media and the Internet to report discriminatory content and messages in news media and advertising, according to a press release by the Human Rights Commission (CHDF in Spanish).
The Brazilian military hindered camera crews from filming in the Complexo do Alemão, a collection of 13 slums, or favelas, outside Rio de Janeiro, on Oct. 3, reported the website Consciência.net. The favelas have been occupied by the military since November 2010, after a series of attacks orchestrated by drug traffickers.
The Federal Commission of Telecommunications (Cofetel), the organization responsible for regulating the media in Mexico, is considering a proposal to open up the air waves and offer more digital television broadcasting licenses, according to a report from the newspaper El Universal.
On Oct. 6, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked the Chilean Congress to reject the government's proposed penal code reform on the grounds that it violates fundamental freedoms of expression.
After first going after Twitter for information about accounts of WikiLeaks supporters, now the U.S. government has obtained secret court orders forcing Google Inc. and the Internet provider Sonic.net to hand over the email addresses of anyone who has corresponded with WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum during the past two years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Yahoo! Vice President Luke Beatty announced the search engine's still nascent Yahoo! Contributor Network, a freelance collaborative news network, was coming to Brazil, IDG Now! reported.
Against the backdrop of three journalists killed, one jailed, others facing death threats, and two more accused of defamation, Peru celebrated Journalists' Day on Saturday, Oct. 1.
Andrés Izarra, Venezuelan minister of information and communications, criticized journalists from El Nuevo Herald de Miami for falsely reporting that President Hugo Chávez was rushed to a hospital in the capital, Caracas, reported AFP.
Uruguay's state-run telecommunications company, Antel, denied journalist David Rabinovich information about its marketing expenses, despite a 2010 access to public information law.
The United States and Brazil on Tuesday, Sept. 20, in New York launched a transparency initiative for open government, reported the Epoch Times.
The newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the second largest in Brazil in terms of circulation launched on Sunday, Sept. 18, a WikiLeaks copycat site allowing readers to anonymously submit documents, reported Folha de São Paulo.