Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a decrease in media freedom from 2014 to 2015, according to a recent index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French).
Using the SecureDrop system, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a digital platform that journalists and other people around the world can use to share information with them or to report violations of press freedom.
The mid-year meeting of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which took place from April 8 to 11 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, concluded discussions renewing its support for press freedom and condemning the continuing violence suffered by journalists on the continent.
Documents obtained by judicial order show that the company JBS, one of the largest food company in the world, and another company contracted by it in 2015 sponsored a smear campaign against Brazilian journalist and founder of the nonprofit organization Reporter Brazil, Leonardo Sakamoto. The information was published by Folha de S. Paulo on April 8.
Once more, Colombian authorities are investigating threats against journalists and social leaders distributed via pamphlets and signed with the name of a criminal group.
In a report about human rights in Guatemala published on March 14, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern about attacks in recent months against journalists whose investigative work was related to corruption, public administration and human rights violations.
Journalist David Romero Ellner, director of Honduran media outlets Radio Globo and Globo TV, was sentenced on March 14 to 10 years in prison for having committed six crimes of injuria and defamation against former public prosecutor Sonia Gálvez.
After a TV crew was taken hostage in Paraná, a station invaded in Goiania and eight reporters beaten in São Paulo, on March 10, UNESCO and representatives of Brazilian media corporations delivered a letter to the country’s Minister of Social Communication calling for action to protect journalists and to ensure the media can work safely during the coverage of corruption investigations in the country.
The director of Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Caroní, David Natera Febres, was sentenced to four years in prison for crimes of defamation and injuria related to reports published in 2013 that denounced cases of corruption in a state mining company, reported nonprofit organization Espacio Público. Natera Febres was given 10 days to appeal the decision.
The new challenges to the implementation of free-to-air digital television in Latin American countries, and its impacts on freedom of expression in the region, were discussed on April 5 during the 157th Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Every seven minutes, a complaint of violence against women is registered in Brazil, according to the Secretariat of Policies for Women. On International Women's Day, March 8, Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo published these reports via Twitter at the exact frequency that they occur: every seven minutes. The newspaper posted real complaints collected by the Center for Assistance to Women — Dial 180.
In the midst of efforts by civil society to improve dialogue between the LGBTQ community and media, the Ecuadorian government has determined that a cartoon by El Universo cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, known as Bonil, which appeared to comment on gender identity, is not discriminatory.