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.
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez and her husband Reinaldo Escobar were arrested on Thursday Oct. 4, Europa Press reported.
Journalists in Haiti critical of the government constantly face intimidation and are blocked access to official sources, according to a recent report from the University of San Francisco’s School of Law and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon testified at a briefing on press freedom in Latin America that violence and legal harassment are the biggest obstacles journalists face in the region, according to CPJ’s website.
After a series of increasingly aggressive threats from an ex-commander of the Rondas Ostensivas Tobias de Aguiar (ROTA in Portuguese), an arm of the São Paulo Military Police, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo moved its reporter André Caramante to an undisclosed location for his security, reported the newspaper Brasil de Fato.
Venezuela's presidential election will take place next Sunday, Oct. 7. In this period of the campaign, the media landscape in the country is polarized between supporters of President Hugo Chávez and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. An analysis from BBC revealed that while the Venezuelan government has built a media empire of five public broadcasters, the state-run channels have only a slim 5.4 percent of the audience share, according to an investigation by AGB Panamericana.
The Information Safety bill that is currently being considered by Panama’s National Assembly could represent a threat to freedom of expression in that country, according to several journalists’ unions and associations, the newspaper La Estrella reported.
Ecuador's Electoral Court (TCE in Spanish) sentenced a magazine to pay $80,000 for publishing an editorial on Sept. 26, reported the newspaper El Universo.
An Ecuadorian journalist was denied entrance into a press meeting with the country's President, Rafael Correa, at the Teleradio Noticias station after the Secretary of Communication complained that his questions could make some officials uncomfortable, reported Fundamedios.
As Televisa continues to deny any connection between the television broadcaster and a money laundering ring in Nicaragua, a prosecutor in the Central American country said that some of the suspects, arrested while impersonating reporters, supposedly called the broadcaster shortly before they were apprehended.