Venezuela’s telecommunications agency, Conatel, ordered Televén to immediately stop broadcasting the Colombian telenovela soap opera “Chepe Fortuna” for promoting “political and racial intolerance, as well as xenophobia and crime advocacy,” Reuters and BBC Mundo report.
El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes sent back to the Legislative Assembly a bill that would create a public information access law, asking for various modifications and clarifications, reported El Faro.
Freedom of expression activists spoke out against the island’s Legislative Assembly for trying to prosecute Brent Fuller, a journalist for the Caymanian Compass, for an article criticizing a plan to review the country’s information access laws in closed-door committee hearings.
An unprecedented legal ruling announced this week holds Brazil responsible for the forced disappearance of more than 70 opponents of the military dictatorship (1964–1985) and says the government has violated the right of family members “to seek and receive information and to learn the truth.”
The Constitutional Court of Peru ruled that media outlets cannot make public secretly recorded phone calls when their content “affects personal or family privacy, or the private life of the intercepted party or third parties, unless it is of public interest or import,” Perú 21 reports.
Starting Dec. 14, Venezuela’s National Assembly will begin to work on reforming the Social Responsibility on Radio and Television Law to include internet services and digital media, El Impulso and Europa Press report.
The Brazilian government is preparing the first version of a bill to establish a new regulatory framework for telecommunications, which includes a new National Communications Agency (Agência Nacional de Comunicação – ANC) with the power to regulate radio and TV content, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
After 17 months of debate, the Legislative Assembly in El Salvador approved a law requiring state institutions to make information available to the public, reported El Faro. The law still must be signed by President Mauricio Funes.
Just as the newest WikiLeaks release has strained Washington’s relations with much of the world, including Latin America, its revelations have also shaken Canada, threatening its ties to Afghanistan. Ottawa’s ambassador to Kabul has offered to resign over his criticism of the Afghan president.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's probing questions into the state of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's mental health, reports of Cuban spies and Colombian FARC guerrillas in Venezuela, and statements that Bolivian President Evo Morales had been invited to Brazil to have a sinus tumor removed are just some of the disclosures made in the leaked diplomatic cables whistle-blower site WikiLeaks released in what has become known as "cablegate."
Coverage of violence and crime by the Brazilian media is being enriched by the so-called “Police Twitterverse.” Going around department hierarchies, officers are using Twitter to narrate their day-to-day work, denounce corruption and abuse, and share their thoughts on issues ranging from police institutions to media coverage. Their posts are closely followed by reporters and academics, creating an active, critical space on social networks for discussing public security that is spilling over into how police issues are covered.
The national telecom regulator, Conatel, has urged that the law governing TV and radio broadcasts be modified to include Internet content, El Universal and El Tiempo report.