The Venezuelan chapter of the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) has released its most recent publication, Methods of Impertinence, a collection of best practices and lessons for investigative journalism in Latin America. The book combines testimonies from 10 prominent journalists from the region that were presented between 2005 and 2009 at events in Mexico, and the Venezuelan cities of Caracas, Maracaibo, and Puerto La Cruz.
Reporters, editors, academics and developers who are highly involved in producing digital news will meet in São Paulo May 29, 2010, for the First International Seminar on Online Journalism. The event is organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Faculdade Cásper Líbero, and the Brazilian chapter of the Online News Association, a U.S. organization.
Bloggers in Jamaica have been covering for many months the series of events that led to this week’s violence and state of emergency in Jamaica over the government’s decision to extradite an alleged drug lord to the United States. Global Voices Online’s Janine Mendes-Franco compiles reports from bloggers and social media users, as does Robert Mackey for The New York Times.
This week marks the sixth anniversary of the country’s transparency and information access law, but some say the way it works in practice leaves much to be desired, BBC Mundo reports.
The country's biggest media outlet announced that it would not report on the disappearance of former presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos until the investigation has concluded, drawing criticism from media and security experts, CNN México reports. (See articles in English by The Christian Science Monitor and the Associated Press.)
Journalists and civil society representatives convened for the “Second Platform for Action to Strengthen Freedom of Expression in Central America,” where they identified the principal challenges for exercising this right and listed initiatives to promote it throughout the region.
Beto Ortiz, a well-known local media figure, was dismissed from Frecuencia Latina (Channel 2) for “editorial differences,” and his column in Perú21 has been discontinued. In an interview with Dedomedio magazine, the journalist claims that his departure from both media is a way to censor him for his "impertinence" in reporting irregularities in the transfer of ownership of América TV (Channel 4) to the media groups of El Comercio and La República during the administration of President Alejandro Toledo.
The U.S. government’s Radio and TV Martí broadcasts to Cuba reach fewer than 2 percent of people on the island, suffer from poor editorial standards, and have failed to make a meaningful influence on Cuban society, a U.S. Senate Committee reports (PDF) this week. See reports by AFP, the Miami Herald, Washington Post and Inter Press Service.
Journalists and organizations throughout the world marked World Press Freedom Day Monday (May 3). UNESCO's conference in Australia about defending access to information ended with auma declaration asking countries to enact laws "guaranteeing the right to information in accordance with the internationally-recognized principle of maximum disclosure." See more information about the day's events.
Participants and speakers from more than 20 countries in the Americas, Europe and Africa took part in the 11th International Symposium on Online Journalism, co-sponsored by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
In a visit to the city of Sinop, one of the largest logging centers in Mato Grosso state, journalist Andreia Fanzeres asked a resident if she liked living in Amazonia. Her response was disturbing. “I only see Amazonia on television.” The journalist's discovery of the gap between the media's reporting and the knowledge of the local population about deforestation led her to move from Rio de Janeiro to Juína, in northern Mato Grosso, to research the topic.
In a visit to the city of Sinop, one of the largest logging centers in Mato Grosso state, journalist Andreia Fanzeres asked a resident if she liked living in Amazonia. Her response was disturbing. “I only see Amazonia on television.” The journalist's discovery of the gap between the media's reporting and the knowledge of the local population about deforestation led her to move from Rio de Janeiro to Juína, in northern Mato Grosso, to research the topic.