Journalist Eduardo Villatoro says he received telephoned death threats for his reports on mining and gas plants on the coasts of Guatemala, Cerigua reports via IFEX. Callers told the journalist he could be killed for being an enemy of progress and discouraging foreign investment.
Dominican TV journalist José Agustín Silvestre de los Santos, who is facing a defamation trial after accusing a prosecutor of supposed ties with drugtrafficking, was set free after six days in jail and after posting a $3,800 bail, reported Reporters Without Borders (RSF). However, Silvestre de los Santos, the host of the television program "The Voice of Truth" for the regional channel Cana TV in the Dominican Republic, still must appear before authorities in 30 days for the trial against him to continue.
After Peru's polarized elections in which the mainstream media was accused of fronting a disinformation campaign, what is the role of journalism since the victory of Ollanta Humala? The renowned journalist Augusto Álvarez Rodrich wrote in La República: "Journalism that attempts to exercise the profession with decency and independence now has to proceed, with rigor, to monitor the new government, including the completion of its promises... There is no blank check, president-elect Ollanta Humala".
The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) has been elected to represent Latin America at the International Federation of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Council, the ruling body of the largest free expression network in the world, CERIGUA reports.
Press freedom organizations and journalist unions have united to express their concern for the future of press freedom in Ecuador because of the tension between the government and the media, which has intensified in recent months after lawsuits President Rafael Correa has filed against reporters and media owners.
The Dominican Journalism Guild (CPD) called on the authorities to end the wave of aggression faced by media workers in the Dominican Republic, Listín Diario reports. The CPD says there have been more than 30 incidents against members of the press in 2011.
A bill that would criminalize leaking or publishing information on confidential criminal investigations and trials passed committee in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies May 31, O Globo reports.
Brazilian senator Delcídio do Amaral, elected by the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, is suing the news website Terra and reporter Italo Milhomem Santos for roughly $63,000 for publishing supposedly untrue information, according to Portal Imprensa.
A judge in the Dominican Republic has ordered TV reporter José Agustin Silvestre de los Santos held on $5,250 bail pending a trial for allegedly defaming a La Romana prosecutor in a report accusing the official of ties to drug trafficking, Diario Libre reports.
Journalists from Argentine media outlets like Clarín, La Nación, Perfil, Telefé, TN, DyN, El Trece and others were thrown out of an event organized by the association Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, reported Clarín. A woman with the organization of mothers whose children were disappeared during Argentina's Dirty War, told a photographer with Clarín: "These are the rules of the game, you are not welcome here."
Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa canceled his column in the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio in protest of its "information manipulation" during the ongoing presidential election campaign, according to the news agency EFE. The protest is part of various critiques against the newspaper for supporting candidate Keiko Fujimori and for its impartial election coverage.
A week before the second round of presidential voting between Keiko Fujimori and Ollanta Humala, a Calandria Social Communicators Association study says that the El Comercio media company has taken Fujimori’s side in the race, the Inter Press Service reports.