Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli is organizing a national dialogue on freedom of expression, to be held on Saturday, May 14, 2011, in response to allegations of threats and abuse perpetrated by government officials against journalists, EFE reports.
Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, ordered the country's media to show more patriotism and support the government's strategy of bringing Chile before an international court in order to obtain access to the Pacific Ocean, according to El Deber.
A series of videos that attack Panamanian journalists, especially those at La Prensa newspaper, were released at the end of April. Reporters without Borders (RSF) argues that their release is related to the publication of WikiLeaks cables that were not to President Ricardo Martinelli’s liking.
Nearly two years after the requirement to hold a media-related degree to practice journalism was declared unconstitutional by the Brazilian Supreme Court, bills supporting the reinstatement of the requirement are advancing in legislatures nationwide.
César Lévano, director of the Peruvian newspaper La Primera, and Arturo Belaúnde, president of the same newspaper, received funeral wreaths in the midst of a tense presidential election campaign, according to La República.
A week after being arrested for allegedly slandering Attorney General Washington Pesántez in a blog post, Víctor Vizcaíno Luzuriaga was freed pending trial by a judge, El Diario and Radio Sucre report.
Roberto Peixoto, the mayor of Taubaté, São Paulo, blocked street sales of Bom Dia Taubaté on May 10. According to the paper, the audit comes after it published articles on a series of scandals and corruption allegations involving the mayor.
The governor of the central-western state of Mato Gross, Silval Barbosa, asked the press to not publish negative stories about the progress of development projects for the 2014 World Cup, which will be held in Brazil, Olhar Direto reports.
In Bolivia’s three largest cities, 92% of journalists say that freedom of expression is under threat in the county, according to May 8 survey of 200 journalists, FMBolivia reports.
Valdir Cardoso, the Brazilian journalist responsible for the site O Jornal MS, is denouncing the way a judicial order to confiscate one of his videos was carried out, according to the digital newspaper Midiamax. The video in question is about a supposed corruption case involving government officials from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
The votes still are being counted, but Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has claimed victory in a nationwide vote on 10 issues ranging from a bullfighting ban to the creation of a panel to regulate media content, CNN reports. Both the government and the opposition have suggested that there were irregularities during in the Saturday, May 7, vote, local media outlets report.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed concern over the "deterioration" of freedom of the press in Argentina, and accused the administration of Argentine President Cristina Fernández of executing a strategy of information control reported the Associated Press.