As a result of their ineffective prosecution of crimes against journalists and attempts at influencing news coverage, state authorities in Mexico have become a "major obstacle" to press freedom in the country, according to a report from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Press Institute (IPI).
Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias was freed this Tuesday, reported the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. According to statements to Martí Noticias by Martínez, agents from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) left him near the premises of Hablemos Press, the independent news agency he works for as a correspondent.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused transnational buissneses and the local government of attacking and harrassing community radio stations in Oaxaca, Mexico that are opposed to the building of a wind power station in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
A Mexican Facebook and Twitter user, who reported on violence and attacks in the north of Mexico, announced on Sunday the definitive closing of the account Valor por Tamaulipas in the coming nine days, reported Proceso.
The Committee to Protect Journalists highlighted last week the cyber-attack against the websites of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the International Symposium for Online Journalism, which knocked down the sites for two weeks.
The government of Ecuador announced that it will file a new lawsuit against newspaper La Hora for having published a series of photographs that, it claims, incites to hatred, reported newspaper El Universo. The National Secretariat of Communication, Secom, plans to file the lawsuit between today and tomorrow, the newspaper added.
The International Press Institute, IPI, demanded the immediate release of Cuban journalist Calixto Martínez who was arrested for insulting authorities, according to a press released from the organization.
In June 2012, journalist Ana Lilia Pérez joined the ranks of at least 15 other Mexican journalists living in exile after receiving threats, according to Reporters Without Borders.
An Argentine journalist has been ordered to pay damages for a 2002 story reporting that a businessman was under investigation for tax evasion, in spite of the fact that the story was based on official documents, reported the newspaper La Capital. The ruling against Adrián Murano, editor in chief of the magazine Veintitrés, stipulates that he must pay 50,000 Argentine pesos (USD $10,000) in damages to Enrique Estevanez, added the paper.
Luiz Carlos Azenha, journalist for the Brazilian news network Rede Record and editor of the blog Viomundo, was ordered to pay nearly $15,000 in moral damages to TV Global's news and sports director, Ali Kamel, reported the website Consultor Jurídico.
The Jamaican government will submit new defamation legislation designed to protect journalists in their work, reported the news website Caribbean360. Information Minister Sandrea Falconer says the new law will remove the distinction between libel and slander, set up a single defamation cause, and abolish the criminal libel law, added the website.
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) applauded, in a recent press release, that the governments of the American continent supported the Inter-American Human Rights System during the Extraordinary General Assembly celebrated in Washington on Friday, March 22.