The Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish) of Venezuela recorded 19 incidents that affected press freedom in the country during the presidential elections that took place on Sunday, Oct. 7, the group said in a report released on Oct. 11. According to IPYS Venezuela, the events happened between the week before the elections and the days after the results were announced.
The Global Editors Network (GEN) released a statement on its website calling attention to the Argentine government's attacks against the press in what it described as a "press freedom crisis." GEN warned that the government's intentions to break up Grupo Clarín and seize its assets on Dec. 7 is a threat to press freedom in Latin America.
An Ecuadorian newspaper was fined $500 for publishing photographs of underage children with President Rafael Correa, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The judge for Children and Adolescents fined the director of the newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez Barriga, on Oct. 2, according to IPYS.
"Maras" and criminal gangs exerted the greatest censorship against the Guatemalan press between July and September 2012, according to a trimester report from the Journalists Observatory of the Center of Informative Reports on Guatemala (CERIGUA in Spanish).
A Peruvian journalist working in the area of human rights received two phone calls with death threats and an envelope with four bullets on Oct. 4, according to the Press and Society Institute, or IPYS. The relatives of Rosario Huayanca Zapata, who works for the Human Rights Commission of Ica (in the south-central region of the country), received the phone calls, while the envelope was found at her work.
A Honduran journalist went into hiding for three days after an arrest warrant was issued against her, reported the Committee for Freedom of Expression (C-Libre).
Police detained a photographer for an hour and a half in Colombia on Sunday, Oct. 7, reported the newspaper Vanguardia Liberal. While in custody, the photographer was forced to erase pictures he took while covering a bomb explosion in a city park in Bucaramanga, Santander.
Journalist Peter Godwin said he recently met with the governor of Veracruz Javier Duarte to discuss violence against journalists in the Mexican state, even though the politician denied the meeting took place and other alleged participants also said they weren’t there, the Mexican weekly Proceso reported.
Journalism is the biggest loser in the confrontation between the government of Argentina and some of the country’s biggest media companies, according to a recent report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The International Press Institute (IPI) decried government harassment of investigative reporters in Trinidad and Tobago and accused the islands' communications ministry of abusing a dormant broadcasting rule, reported the organization on Thursday, Oct. 4, and Friday, Oct. 5.
A journalist was placed in solitary confinement for five hours after trying to interview an official in the city of Saavedra, Buenos Aires, reported the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish).
Venezuela journalist Leonardo León tweeted on Sept. 30, that he had received threats on his Twitter feed from a government supporter known as "imperatus josue," reported the press freedom group Public Space.