First came an accusation against a journalist who refused to reveal his sources after publishing in the Brazilian newspaper Diário da Região information from phone calls secretly recorded as part of a judicial investigation in São José do Rio Preto. Now Brazilian federal police say they plan to go after the newspaper's editor, too, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
Associated Press employees have been warned to not share their opinions via social media, Poynter reports, lest they damage the reputation of the 165-year-old international news network.
The website for the Honduran newspaper El Libertador was attacked by hackers on June 28, reported IFEX. This is the second time the newspaper has been subject to digital sabotage since the 2009 Honduran coup, which El Libertador opposed.
The freeing of all Cuba's imprisoned dissident journalists in recent months generated expectations about a possible relaxation of strict censorship rules and zero tolerance for opposition under the more than 50 years of leadership by the Castro brothers in Cuba. However, freedom of expression organizations are denouncing a new wave of attacks on independent Cuban journalists, an indication that nothing in fact has changed and the regime of censorship is continuing, according to news reports.
Reporters Without Borders has called for the immediate release of two Haitian journalists who were jailed June 22 by authorities for no apparent valid reason, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange reports.
"You cannot curtail the right of information and of the media to investigate," said judge Manuel Aguirre during the ruling issued Thursday, June 30. The judge argued that the role of the media is fundamental for democracy, explained ABC Digital.
Antuérpio Pettersen Filho, blogger in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo and editor of digital newspaper Grito Cidadão, received death threats after publishing a report accusing a police official of being part of a militia, reported the blog Vi o Mundo.
The National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL in Spanish) of Venezuela has filed another complaint against opposition television station Globovisión for "inciting hatred" for covering a deadly prison riot in mid-June in the northern state of Miranda, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.
Costa Rica's Congress voted to table a proposed freedom of expression and the press law that would have updated the 1902 press law, and whose approval had been pending for several years, reported the radio station Monumental.
Journalist Mary Luz Avendaño, corresponsdent in Medellín, Colombia, for the newspaper El Espectador, and Lydia Cacho, a Mexican investigative reporter, received death threats after publishing stories on drug trafficking and human trafficking, respectively, reported IFEX and Article 19.
The legislature for the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, which recently has become one of the most violent regions in the country because of drug trafficking, has passed a law protecting journalistic secrets, the first such legislation in Mexico, reported El Diario de Ciudad Juárez.
In the Brazilian city of São José do Rio Preto, in the state of São Paulo, journalist Allan de Abreu has been indicted for allegedly disseminating secret court information, reported Diário da Região, the newspaper where Abreu works.