The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) criticized President Rafael Correa for suing journalists and media executives, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged him to withdraw the legal complaints.
Reporter Pedro López, a correspondent for Radio Progreso in Cortés Department western Honduras, was held by police for four hours along with demonstrators. He was covering a national strike on Wednesday, El Patriota reports.
After the recent controversial firing of journalist Aguirre Peixoto, the newspaper A Tarde is embroiled in another controversy over one of its employees. Reporter Emanuella Sombra resigned, Monday, March 28, after disagreeing with edits that were made to her interview with the singer Ivete Sangalo, reported the news site Grande Bahia. According to the journalist, an important part of her article, where the singer spoke about a crisis in the company and a lawsuit involving an ex-employee, was edited out against her will.
The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, asked for $80 million in damages from the newspaper El Universo, in a complaint filed for alleged libel, El Universo reported.
More than half of Panamanians believe freedom of expression is at risk in their country, where in recent months the press has been in conflict with the government of President Ricardo Martinelli, reported the AFP news agency.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal initiated by a group of 15 journalists and academics against a constitutional provision that bans private individuals from buying electoral ad space on radio and TV, Milenio reports.
Argentina's Clarín newspaper published a blank front page Monday, March 28, in protest against the 12-hour blockade at the printing press the previous day that had prevented normal circulation of the country's largest newspaper, reported MercoPress, Notimex and La Gaceta.
In an interview from Wednesday, March 23, Brazil's former World-Cup soccer team manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, became irritated with the press and threatened a journalist who revealed how much Scolari, current coach for the Palmeiras team, makes, reported Folha de São Paulo.
President Evo Morales, who has a tense relationship with the press, lashed out again against some opposition media, accusing them of trying to weaken his administration, IFEX reports.
After the shutdown of two community radio stations in Mexico during the past two weeks, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) is calling on Mexican authorities to stop "criminalizing" community stations, reported Púlsar, the information agency for AMARC of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Nearly 50 Mexican media organizations signed an agreement Thursday about coverage of drug trafficking. The pact seeks to prevent excessive publication of violent images and stories and to guarantee the safety of journalists who expose themselves daily to the growing violence of organized crime, which has left more than 34,000 deaths in four years. See stories in English by the Associated Press and Reuters.
Monday, primetime in Cuba. While state television broadcast a new episode of a series of allegations against the opposition, "The Reasons of Cuba,” this time about independent bloggers, the movement's leader, Yoani Sánchez, broadcast her own talk program with dissident journalists, in which she defended the right to access and use Internet on the island, Radio Martí reports.