Dissident Cuban journalist Albert Santiago Du Bouchet, who had been in jail since 2009 for defamation, was freed by the Cuban authorities and exiled to Spain, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports. The government had already released the journalists who were among the 52 dissidents jailed during the 2003 “Black Spring” crackdown.
Enrique Hernández Padrón and Graciela Castañón Aguilar, former reporters for El Portal in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosí, say they were fired under pressure from the state government to keep from losing advertising money, Mexico’s National Social Communication Center (CENCOS) reports.
Two U.S. journalists are among four foreign correspondents captured by the Libyan military earlier this week, reported USA Today. A Spanish photographer and South African photographer also are being held.
Thousands demonstrated in the streets of Mexico’s biggest cities against the wave of drug trafficking violence that has left 35,000 dead since 2006. The protests were organized by writer and journalist Javier Sicilla, whose son was one of seven people killed this week in the city of Cuernavaca, Mileno and CDN report.
El Nacional newspaper reports that two of its journalists were arrested by the police while covering a protest by flood victims in the capital city of Caracas.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Fundamedios, and Reporters without Borders (RSF) spoke out against the government shutdown of La Voz de la Selva Esmeralda Oriental community radio station in the southeastern Ecuadoran city of Macas, Radio Tierra reports.
The U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Robert Callahan, abruptly ended an interview on Libya with Multinoticias Canal 4, declaring “I’m fed up with this, this is only provocation!” Terra reports.
On Wednesday Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli denied a petition from a human rights organization to allow deported Spanish journalists accused of inciting protests to return to Panama, reported La Estrella.
In an article titled “the end of censorship,” Caras magazine announced that it was authorized by a São Paulo state court to publish a letter sent by actress Cibele Dorsa, who died after allegedly committing suicide March 26.
Alec Duarte, a political editor for Folha de São Paulo newspaper, and Carol Rocha, a reporter for the Folha-owned Agora SP, were fired on March 31 after Twitter messages about the death of former Vice-President José Alencar, IDG Now reports.
Cuban state-television is accusing a former Reuters bureau chief of serving as a liaison for CIA intelligence, reported the Associated Press.
In an April 1 press conference, a World Cup and Sao Paulo soccer player for the Corinthians team, Adriano Leite Ribeiro, threatened to sue the newspaper O Dia, published in Río de Janeiro. The soccer player is complaining about an article that revealed a tape-recorded conversation in which he makes fun of the police and says he's not scared to drive without a license, reported the news site Terra.