Claiming that "narco-novelas" hurt the social and psychological well-being of children and adolescents, Venezuela's Nacional Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) has forbidden television stations from airing two telenovelas, or soap operas, whose main protagonists are drug dealers, reported El Universal and BBC Mundo.
Claiming that “journalists were misusing documents and seeking data about candidates involved in the electoral campaign,” the National Archive denied researchers access to files, during recent campaigns, about the dictatorship (1964-1985), O Globo reports.
The police have indicted journalist Amaury Ribeiro Júnior for violating the financial privacy of opposition candidate José Serra and are asking his former editor Josemar Gimenez to discuss the case, Terra reports.
Veteran foreign correspondent Mort Rosenblum doesn't like where international news coverage by U.S. media outlets seems to be headed.
Journalists increasingly are turning to Twitter to break stories, and even write stories ignored by traditional mainstream media.
In a failed attempt to avoid speculations in the press about the health of Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, who is undergoing treatment for lymphatic cancer, the president's brother, Pompeyo Lugo, asked the courts to prevent the media from revealing any information recorded in the official medical reports. The appeal for protection was removed days later, after protests and cries of censorship, according to La Nación.
The country’s National Information Agency announced it will start a new free weekly paper, with nationwide circulation, that will cover the activities of the government, including news from different ministries, departments, and public institutions, Radio Ñandutí reports.
The dismissal of psychoanalyst Maria Rita Kehl from her work as a columnist for O Estado de S. Paulo, after writing about the “disqualification” of votes of poor people in Brazil brought accusations of censorship and requests for her reinstatement, Terra Magazine reports.
Despite a growing need for transparency and access to information in the public sector, Brazil remains one of the few Latin American countries that still has not approved a freedom of information (FOI) law. The relatively weak news media coverage of a freedom of information law in Brazil is one of the key factors that can explain why proposals have been floating around Congress since 2003 without finding closure and, consequently, why citizens still have no right to access information. While an information access bill was introduced in Congress in May 2009, it still is awaiting approval in the Senate.
Reportero W, a Peruvian website “fully armed with information sent by citizens,” made its electoral coverage debut covering regional and municipal contests Oct.3.
Some 250 foreign correspondents have descended on Brazil to cover the presidential election Oct. 3, reported O Globo.
Under the slogan “the media law is for everyone, for the monopolies too,” activists demanded enforcement of the Audiovisual Media Law, a rule that was passed by Congress nearly a year ago but is still unenforced due to several court rulings, La Jornada and EFE report.