U.S. newspapers should do a much better job covering drug trafficking in their own cities, charged a Mexican editor who argues the drug cartels love nothing better than to limit coverage of their deadly activities.
Several Latin American countries have recently adopted information access laws in order to promote government transparency and facilitate the public’s right to know. While the passage of such laws is certainly an important step, a new report notes that legal recognition does not mark the end to the fight for greater transparency, Sociedad Uruguaya reports.
In the midst of a tense relationship between President Cristina Fernández and the country’s media, the concept of “militant journalism” is a constant theme of debate in Argentina. El Diario 24 columnist Adrián Carlos Corbella wonders whether there is journalism that escapes this label and questions the demonization of “militant” – i.e. openly ideological – journalists by those who self-identify as “independent.”
The meeting began with a moment of silence for slain television journalist Yensi Roberto Ordoñez Galdamez. Nearly 80 journalists bowed their heads as they gathered for the “3rd International Meeting of Journalists from the Departments and the Capital of Guatemala.” Their mission: to bring journalists together for training and dialogue in hopes of improving coverage of the upcoming elections.
Knight Fellows at Stanford University recently discussed digital initiatives in the Americas, including a plan to improve communication among Cuban bloggers, a proposed web portal to help Latino teens become better informed, and an online "toolkit" to help journalists cover Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Coinciding with a call by international organizations for increased freedom of expression on the Internet, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report urges governments to support internet use as a human right, GigaOm reports.
Representatives from the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of American States, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights signed the "Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and the Internet", a document that urges governments not to limit freedom of expression online, reported EFE.
Press groups in Bolivia criticized the “hasty” and “incomplete” reform of the Electoral Systems Law, which will continue to bar media outlets from reporting on or airing opinions about judicial elections, Los Tiempos reports.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and Brazil’s National Newspaper Association (ANJ) will hold the "International Forum on Freedom of Expression and the Judiciary” Friday, May 27 in Brasília. Participants will meet in the offices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to discuss the relationship between press law and press freedom in Brazil and abroad.
Federal prosecutors in Brazil announced charges against João Dorileo Leal, a top executive at Grupo Gazeta, the largest media company in Mato Grosso state, for laundering money earned from illegal gambling, Folha de São Paulo reports.
In two separate incidents, journalists in Ecuador say they are being targeted for their critical reporting on the powerful. In the first case, Fundamedios reports via IFEX that a prosecutor in the coastal city of Manta is suing five directors and journalists who work for the Ediasa media group for libel over an article reporting allegations that he accepted a bribe.
Fernando Collor de Mello, an impeached ex president and current senator, has once again ruined the government’s plan to quickly pass a law regulating access to classified documents, iG reports.