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.
In September 2010, Folha de S. Paulo (The São Paulo Journal) used the courts to shut down the Falha de S. Paulo (The São Paulo Failure) parody site for infringing on Folha’s copyright in its name, website address, and graphics. Eight months later, lawyers for the newspaper have said the site can return in its original form if it does not use the visual aspects of the paper’s brand, explains the parody site’s blog, "Sorry for our Failure."
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has said several existing and proposed laws in Bolivia could reduce press freedom in the country.
Just days after announcing a national dialogue on freedom of expression in response to increasing reports of incidents against the press by the authorities, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli accused media owners of having a "shadowy agenda," TVN Noticias reports.
Journalists from TV RBA and Diário do Pará newspaper were not allowed to witness statements made in court by Rômulo Maiorana Jr. on May 18, Diário Online reports.
Spain announced that it has been negotiating on behalf on one of its jailed citizens, journalist Sebastián Martínez Ferraté, to determine why he has been held for 10 months in a Cuban prison without being formally charged, the Associated Press reports.