President of the Venezuelan National Journalists' Union (CNP in Spanish), Tinedo Guía, requested more protection for journalists who cover the country's legislature, reported the newspaper El Universal. On Tuesday, Feb. 5, reporters from private media organizations were prevented from covering an event at the National Assembly in Caracas.
A Venezuelan security agency open an inquiry into a journalist with the purpose of pressing charges against him for "instigating crime" with his articles about the killing of a prison gang leader in the city of Maracaibo, according to the website El Oriente.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) called on the Colombian authorities to provide more protection for journalists threatened in the country during the past month, according to statements from both groups.
The president of Ecuador Rafael Correa – who is currently running for reelection – and his running mate Jorge Glas have filed a complaint with the National Electoral Commission (or CNE in Spanish) over the publication of a political cartoon that they say damages their image, according to the news agency AFP.
The governor of the Mexican state of Colima Mario Anguiano said last week that the federal government agreed with state governments not to report on violence to reduce the perception of insecurity in the country, according to the website SDP Noticias.
Colombia started off 2013 with a series of attacks on the press, including death threats against three journalists, censorship at the hands of criminal gangs and the interrupted distribution of a newspaper in the department of Sucre, reported the Press Freedom Foundation, FLIP, in a press release Thursday, Jan. 31.
After more than 20 denied requests in the last five years, well-known Cuban blogger and activist Yoani Sánchez was granted on Wednesday a passport to travel abroad.
Mexico and Cuba were the worst places for journalists in the Americas, tensions between the government and privately-owned media continued to escalate in Ecuador and Argentina, and Canada lost its position as press freedom leader in the continent.
Lúcio Flávio Pinto, founder and lone reporter for the blog Jornal Pessoal, has won eight prizes, published 22 books and been sued 33 times for his work as a journalist. Pinto's experience is emblematic of judicial censorship in Brazil.
The Colombian newspaper El Meridiano de Sucre claimed that copies of its publication were burned on Tuesday, Jan 29, to prevent its distribution.
Newspaper La Hora said last Friday the government of Ecuador is trying to censor its readers after the National Secretary of Communication, Patricio Barriga, sent a letter to the newspaper’s editor asking for an “effective filter” of reader comments.
A Costa Rican journalist avoided a libel lawsuit after retracting accusations she made against the brother of President Laura Chinchilla, Adrián Chinchilla, in an August 2012 article published in the newspaper La Nación.