Journalists were the targets of anti-press sentiment and actions from officials, security forces and citizens leading up to and during the Oct. 15 regional elections for 23 governorships in Venezuela.
A new tool is available to Latin American newsrooms looking for protection against cyber attacks.
After meeting with media associations and journalists in Bolivia, the leaders of the country's legislature decided to exclude press professionals from controversial Article 200 of the new Penal Code, which sanctions bad professional practice.
Three journalists reporting at the infamous Tocorón prison in northern Venezuela were released Oct. 8 after being held by the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB for its acronym in Spanish) for two days.
Media and journalism associations in Bolivia are on alert due to a proposal to reform the Penal Code that is under debate in the country's Congress. They claim that Article 200 of the new Code, which provides for sanctions against professional misconduct, poses a threat to press freedom by opening the door to the criminalization of journalists in that country.
On Sept. 19, a justice of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF for its acronym in Portuguese) overturned prior censorship imposed on Portal 180graus, journalistic site of Piauí in northeastern Brazil, which was decided by a State judge at the end of August.
In the week since Revista Factum published a report about the alleged existence of a death squad inside the Salvadoran police, they have received death threats, been targeted by smear campaigns and received attacks trying to take down their website. Independent news site El Faro, which has also reported on alleged extrajudicial killings by the police, has also recently received threats.
Update (Aug. 25): Journalist and activist Carlos Julio Rojas was freed from a Venezuelan military prison on Aug. 24 after spending more than seven weeks in detention. At an Aug. 23 press conference, human rights defenders, journalists and civil society organizations called for international organizations to be allowed to monitor the conditions of political prisoners and specifically mentioned Rojas' case.
The Honduran Bar Association joined dozens of journalists who protested the morning of Aug. 16 outside the Supreme Court in Tegucigalpa to demand the repeal of Article 335-B of the Honduran Penal Code, which they consider to be contrary to freedom of expression.
The Peruvian Judiciary decided in favor of Perla Berríos in a lawsuit over harassment suffered by the journalist while working at the network Latina, magazine Caretas reported on Aug. 17.
Valuing journalistic work in Mexico, ending impunity of attacks against journalists and strengthening the guild are the preliminary objectives of the participants of the working groups of the #AgendaDePeriodistas initiative, which seeks to create an organization and a working plan to combat violence against the press in that country.
The deterioration of freedom of expression in Latin America is clear. In 2016 alone, 36 journalists were killed in that region for reasons that may be related to their work, according to the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).