Last week the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report criticizing the use of libel laws in Ecuador to silence critical speech, prompting Ecuador to reject the report, saying the commission was acting outside of its jurisdiction, Terra reports.
Italian journalist and professor Giovanni Proiettis, a resident of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas for 18 years, was summarily deported back to his home country April 15, Proceso reports.
In 2010 there were only 19 attacks against journalists and media outlets in Guatemala – a sharp decline from 60 and 69 in 2009 and 2008, respectively – however a Cerigua study shows that self-censorship is rising in areas affected by drug trafficking, Prensa Libre reports.
Journalist Luis Zabala Farell, who has been in jail since January on charges of instigating violence on his radio show, has said his accusers are intentionally delaying his hearings to keep him in prison and off the air, Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP) reports via IFEX.
Guilherme Mendes, Carlos Batista, and Edmilson Luz for TV Liberal were arrested in the city of Acará, Pará, while reporting on complaints by users at a local health clinic, Portal ORM reports.
Gabriela Weber is a German radio correspondent based in Buenos Aires, who investigated the alleged theft of children by a U.S. diplomat during the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983). According to the journalist, the United States has permanently denied her request for an entrance visa, EFE reports.
In another case of court-ordered censorship in Brazil, journalist Esmael Morais’ blog was taken down at the request of the governor of Paraná state, Beto Richa, Folha de São Paulo reports. The politician’s suit against the blog began during the 2010 electoral campaign season, when Morais posted a video comparing Richa to Adolf Hitler.
The United States Department of State’s 2010 Human Rights Report says the relationship between the press and the government of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa “continued to deteriorate” last year, EFE reports.
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.