El Salvador's most acclaimed newspaper relocated its administrative and legal departments to Costa Rica, due to harassment and government surveillance. However, its journalists remain in the country. Co-founder Carlos Dada told LJR how the move allows them to continue doing their investigative work, while expressing concerns over authoritarianism and potential criminalization of journalists.
Cuban independent journalist Tania Díaz Castro dedicated 60 years to her profession, was a political prisoner, and published four books of poetry. Now 84 years old, she lives alone in Cuba without a pension or retirement. The Casa Palanca collective is carrying out a crowdsourcing campaign to obtain a dignified retirement for the journalist.
This 2023 marks 30 years since the UN General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as World Press Freedom Day. The main commemoration event will take place in New York, but events will also be held in Latin American countries. The date is an invitation for media professionals to reflect on press freedom and professional ethics.
In a panel at UT Austin, four Venezuelan journalists recounted their experiences of persecution and survival during two and a half decades in a country that is no longer a democracy, where print newspapers are lacking and the official media have become hegemonic.
Alejandro Astesiano was chief of security of the current President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, until he was arrested by the Police for leading an organization that falsified documents to obtain passports for Russian citizens. Very quickly, the Uruguayan press obtained the investigative folder of the case which contained more than a thousand Whatsapp chats by the accused.
The arrest and court case of journalist José Rubén Zamora raises suspicions of a strategy by the Guatemalan government to silence the press and even political opponents in the midst of an electoral campaign flooded with allegations of corruption, according to analyses by journalists and human rights experts.
Exhibition in São Paulo presents previously unpublished photographs by Brazilian photojournalist Evandro Teixeira during the first days of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, among others. The exhibition prompts a reflection on the role of the press and photography in authoritarian contexts.
In a series of unprecedented events in the 'Switzerland of Central America,' Rodrigo Chaves uses authoritarian rhetoric and the state apparatus to persecute independent media. Defenders of free speech and journalists believe democracy will survive, but see risks of violence.
Juan Lorenzo Holmann, former general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, is convinced that the newspaper, which is under siege by Daniel Ortega's regime, will rise up as it has done at other times in its history. He also hopes to be reunited with his wife in Nicaragua, from where he was deported to the United States along with more than 200 political prisoners.
Miguel Ángel Mendoza Urbina became a go-to source of information on social media on April 19, 2018, when anti-government protests erupted in Nicaragua. Mendoza’s work led to his arrest on June 21, 2021. Less than two years later, on Feb. 9, 2023, Mendoza was among 222 political prisoners unexpectedly released by Nicaraguan authorities and deported to the United States.