A proposed law that will be debated in Paraguay's House of Representatives would establish community radio stations as those with signal strength between 50 and 300 watts, and would prohibit them from receiving funding from state or private advertising. The Paraguayan Journalists Union rejected the measure, calling the restrictions arbitrary.
Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Normando Hernández González and Mijail Bárzaga, who had been arrested in a crackdown on dissidents in March 2003, bring to nine the number of imprisoned journalists released by the Cuban government, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
After spending 19 days behind bars for defamation charges stemming from an article he wrote more than a decade ago, 71-year-old Panamanian journalist Carlos Nuñez was freed from jail Wednesday, July 14, reported EFE and La Estrella.
Representatives from Brazil's media outlets sent a document to Minister Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes, the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs, arguing that "freedom to think and express opinions and information, without control by whomever, is the very essence of democracy," according to Folha de S. Paulo (link for subscribers) and O Globo.
In a show of international solidarity, journalism and human rights organizations from throughout the hemisphere are calling on the U.S. government to reverse its ban prohibiting renowned Colombian journalist Hollman Morris from entering the United States to take his place as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
The pro-Chavez Necessary Journalism Movement asked the Venezuelan government to investigate the Institute of Press and Society (IPYS) and Public Space, which according to declassified documents receive millions of dollars in funding from the U.S. government, reported El Universal and El Nacional.
The first seven political prisoners released by the Cuban government landed in Madrid Tuesday, July 13. The prisoners are part of the 75 dissidents who were arrested during a crackdown in 2003, reported The Associated Press and ABC.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned that Spanish journalist Paco Gómez Nadal is being threatened with loss of his residency and deportation from Panama.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) has started a letter-writing campaign, asking the U.S. government to reverse its denial of a visa to Colombian television journalist Hollman Morris.
In the latest chapter of tense relations between the government and press in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa said he was "extremely content" with the ad campaign against the media broadcast during the World Cup, reported La Hora.
Three journalists are among the first political prisoners to be released in Cuba, the Committee to Protect Journalists is reporting.
In yet another demonstration of bad blood between the Argentine government and the largest media group in the country, the newspaper Clarín published a statement decrying the "escalation of administrative and judicial persecution" of the press.