The Prosecutor’s Office in Mato Grosso state has charged politicians and businessmen from the city of Juína with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and illegal restraint, after allegedly sequestering several reporters and activists who were trying to film a documentary on deforestation and the Enawene Nawe indigenous peoples, Folha de S. Paulo and Greenpeace report. The attackers feared they would help the tribe in land disputes with local farmers.
A São Paulo court suspended payments towards a more than $335,000 defamation judgment against Debate, a daily based in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo in São Paulo state, O Estado de S. Paulo reports. According to Estado, the court ruled that the debt must still be paid, but the newspaper can still appeal to the Superior Court of Justice, the highest court for non-constitutional questions. Judge José Magdalena sued the newspaper in 1995 for an article that claimed his house and telephone were paid for by the local mayor’s office. The paper lost the case, and its owner, journalist Sérgio Fleury Moraes, said the fine wou
The government of Hugo Chavez took 32 radio and two television stations off the air last year, and to remember the occasion, journalists, media workers and former employees of the closed stations participated in a demonstration that branded the government's action as "arbitrary and illegal", reported AFP.
Robert Cox, the London-born journalist who covered Argentina’s Dirty War when other newspapers wouldn’t, has been made an “Illustrious Citizen of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires,” The Guardian reports. He received the award when visiting the city for the release of the Spanish-language edition of his son’s memoir on the experience.
Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernández, two of the four journalists kidnapped by drug gangs in Durango state, were freed in a rescue operation Saturday, AFP reports. Cameraman Héctor Gordoa was freed Thursday and La Cronica de Hoy reports that the journalist Óscar Solís had been released last Tuesday.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) questioned a proposed law that applies harsh sanctions to media outlets that publish content that affects minors.
Government officials and soldiers from the National Guard took over one of the farms owned by Guillermo Zuloaga, the majority shareholder of opposition TV station Globovisión, El Nacional reports.
Alberto Maquieira, the president of newsprint manufacturer Papel Prensa, has received several threatening letters that say things like “Maquieira, we are watching you,” La Nación reports.
The dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who spent four months on hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners, was released from the hospital and said he wants to continue writing articles, BBC reports.
The prosecutor’s office has charged Perla Jaimes, the lawyer who both represents Globovisión owner Guillermo Zuloaga and the opposition station itself, with allegedly obstructing a court order during the raid of the businessman’s house last May, El Carabobeño reports.
Prosecutors have asked journalist José Pomacusi, the director of the magazine Poder y Placer (Power and Pleasure) and the TV show No Mentiras (No Lies) to explain his alleged connections to a terrorist organization in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, EFE reports. He has asked the prosecution to "clear his name" and "respect free expression," Los Tiempos adds.
An internal government document classifies journalists as “acceptable” or not depending on their ideology and recommends ways of punishing “unacceptable” journalists, for example, by delaying press releases, the Associated Press reports. The Uruguayan Press Association said the two-year old document, which was publicized last week, is reminiscent of tactics used during the country’s military dictatorship.