SIP Alert, a mobile phone app currently in its pilot phase, is an initiative developed by newspaper El Universal and TV Azteca of Grupo Salinas in Mexico, to be used by journalists from the 1,300 media outlets across Latin America affiliated with the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
The 33 journalists and media workers murdered in the Americas during 2016 represent an increase in censorship and corruption in the countries of the Americas, according to the annual report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
2016 was a critical year for the exercise of journalism in the world, according to the annual reports of three international organizations that promote freedom of expression and the press.
Venezuelan journalist Yonathan Guédez was released on April 26 after being detained for 16 days at one of the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB).
Young Venezuelan journalist Yonathan Guédez (22), arrested on April 10 along with 30 protesters in one of the Venezuelan social demonstrations against the recent measures adopted by the Supreme Court, remains in prison, according to various local and national media outlets.
There are 1,738 magistrates, judges and other justice operators from Latin America who have been accepted to take part in the fifth edition of the course “International legal framework on freedom of expression, access to information and protection of journalists,” which will start May 8. Applications are still open for the course, which will be conducted in Spanish.
In the final days of March 2017, several journalists were assaulted during anti-government protests in Venezuela, but recent attacks on journalists in this country have not been exclusively physical. Earlier in the month, a series of cyberattacks forced several Venezuelan independent media outlets to temporarily shut down their websites.
The controversial Peruvian bill that seeks to regulate who can hold management positions in media outlets was withdrawn. However, the authors of the project, the congress members of the party Fuerza Popular, Úrsula Letona and Alejandra Aramayo, proposed a new version, La República reported.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French) recently published the report "Censorship and surveillance of journalists: an unscrupulous business,” in which it denounces several cases of digital surveillance of journalists by both democratic and authoritarian governments around the world.
The Forum for Argentine Journalism (Fopea) recently presented the report Monitoring Freedom of Expression 2016, in which it recorded and analyzed the 65 direct attacks and aggressions the Argentine press suffered during the year.
Cuban journalist Henry Constantín Ferreiro was declared free of charges after being accused of enemy propaganda and being held for almost two days.
Despite the fact that the security of journalists has become a matter of concern for international organizations such as the UN, which even proclaimed a day to encourage the fight against impunity in crimes against journalists, the statistics attacks against these professionals do not appear to be decreasing.