A Peruvian court annulled the conviction of Rafael Léon Rodríguez, a Peruvian journalist who was sentenced on May 3 for aggravated defamation, La República reported. The original sentence carried a one-year suspended prison term and a payment of 6,000 nuevo soles (about US $1,800) in civil damages.
The Sept. 3 detention of lawyer and journalist Braulio Jatar Alonso on Margarita Island in the state of Nueva Esparta in Venezuela has caused indignation and rejection. Family members, as well as local and international human rights organizations have labeled the case a “total abuse” and an attack of press freedom in the country.
The Brazilian government changed the structure, as well as the rules of appointment and dismissal of presidents, of the Brazilian Communications Company, which runs a news agency and broadcasting stations of the federal government. The changes get rid of the Board of Trustees that had been created to give the EBC autonomy from the government.
A day of demonstrations in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas ended with complaints of restrictions on freedoms of the press and of expression, including attacks and temporary detentions of some media workers, as well as international journalists being banned from entering the country.
In Honduras, investigative journalist Ariel Armando D’Vicente Jarquín, 48, was sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of defamation for reporting on a former police chief, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
There is discord between the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales and a large sector of the media, as well as organizations defending freedom of expression, said Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), during a visit to La Paz, according to Página Siete.
The Attorney General of Paraguay ordered an investigation into the case of alleged espionage by the military forces of the country against a journalist, according to the Public Ministry and newspaper ABC Color.
Two Venezuelan news outlets suffered attacks from armed men in the past three days.
Arguing that journalists were making recordings in a “presidential corridor,” members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB for its acronym in Spanish) in Venezuela detained journalists Andreina Flores and Jorge Luis Pérez Valery, according to the Press and Society Institute of Venezuela (IPYS).
The recent episode of government interference in the Brazilian Communications Company (EBC) has rekindled the debate about the need for independent systems of public media in Latin America, instead of traditional state-owned broadcast at the service of governments and ruling parties.
For repeatedly questioning the purchase of medication by the Ecuadorian government, journalist Janet Hinostroza, and the broadcaster Teleamazonas in which she hosts an interview program, were sanctioned on Aug. 8 by the Superintendency of Information and Communication (Supercom) of Ecuador, according to Fundamedios, a freedom of expression organization.
Threats and abuse against Noé Zavaleta led the Mexican journalist to leave the state of Veracruz on Aug. 12, according to Aristegui Noticias.