Dutch journalist Okke Ornstein who is jailed in Panama on charges of criminal defamation will be released by the Panamanian president in the midst of an international campaign for his release, according to his supporters. Ornstein is on a list from the Ministry of Government of persons to receive a reduction of sentence from the President of Panama in the coming days. However, the announcement does not provide further details.
Currently, at least 250 journalists worldwide have been detained in relation to their reporting work, according to recent reports by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and international nonprofit Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French), a nonprofit organization that defends freedoms of expression and information, has been investing in Brazil to increase visibility and presence in the country. In 2015, RSF opened a regional office for Latin America in Rio de Janeiro and launched a version of its site in Portuguese at the end of November 2016.
Ana Julia Jatar shared a photo of her brother Braulio 82 days after he was first imprisoned in Venezuela. His face is gaunt, his once full head of silver hair is shaven and he wears a sad expression on his face.
In Peru, there is a high level of media concentration that threatens freedom of information in the country, according to a report prepared by Peruvian digital investigative journalism site Ojo Público, in conjunction with the German chapter of the international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French).
In the presence of UNESCO assistant director-general for communication and information, Frank La Rue, representatives from the three branches of government in Paraguay signed on Nov. 28 a Letter of Intent to Establish a Security Mechanism for Journalists in Paraguay.
A Såo Paulo court recently ruled that investigators could access Matais’ telephone records. The decision was related to a series of reports written by the journalist in Folha de S. Paulo newspaper in 2012. Matais now works at O Estado de S. Paulo.
In the last week, both Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui and the news site she directs, Aristegui Noticias, have denounced a series of events that, without knowing if they are linked, bring into question how secure the journalist and her team are in the country.
Eight years after arriving in the United States, Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto finally got to tell his story to a judge who will decide whether he will be granted asylum in the U.S. It has been almost a decade spent in a legal limbo, with numerous summonses and postponements. Years separated from family and […]
Update (Nov 26): On Nov. 21, Judge Edgar Flores of the National Court of Justice accepted the Habeas Corpus appeal filed by the lawyers of Ecuadorian journalist Fernando Villavicencio, making ineffective the arrest warrant issued against him on Nov. 14 by Judge Jorge Blum.