Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) criticized Guatemala's General Telecommunications Law, which allows for the nearly automatic renewal of radio and television frequencies for 25 years to those who already leased them.
After arguments from the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj in Portuguese) and similar journalist groups, senators approved a bill to amend the Constitution that requires practicing journalists to have an advanced degree on Nov. 30.
Freedom of expression organizations in Nicaragua protested the rumored sale of television station Canal 2 to the Mexican businessman Ángel González, who is also the owner of Canal 10--the most watched station in the Central American country--as well as channels 4, 9, and 11.
The Mexican Senate approved the decriminalization of slander and libel, reported the newspaper El Universal on Nov. 29.
On Wednesday, Nov. 23, the Mexican Supreme Court denied the appeal of the newspaper La Jornada that had sued the weekly magazine Letras Libres for defamation, according to El Economista.
Journalist and mayor of the city of Londrina in the Brazilian state of Paraná, Homero Barbosa Neto, has demanded the removal of a political cartoon published on a blog criticizing the city government, reported Blog do Esmael.
"I haven't left work early since Mouriño's plane fell. Be careful fellow flyers," posted a Twitter user in Mexico just days before the helicopter carrying the Mexican interior minister and seven others crashed on Nov. 11 outside Mexico City. "Tomorrow on 11/11 a secretary will fall from the sky," tweeted another user with the handle Morf0.
Leocenis García, editor of the Venezuelan newspaper 6to Poder, announced on Nov. 9 that he would go on a hunger strike for an "undetermined time" to reinvigorate the appeal against his detention, reported El Universal. García was arrested Aug. 30 after publishing a cover satirizing several female members of President Hugo Chávez's administration.
After publishing a series of reports on government salaries in all three branches that exceed constitutional limits, the news site "Congresso em Foco" (Congress in Focus) became the target of a flood of legal charges from the public servants in the Brazilian Senate, reported the website on Oct. 31.
Sylvia Gereda, co-founder and director of the Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, said she decided to resign following a dispute with the other co-founders over shares in the newspaper that compromised its editorial independence in Gereda's opinion, according to a post made by the journalist on her blog. In a clarification, Jose Rubén Zamora, editor and founder of elPeriódico wrote, "I did not censor her work not is it true that Manuel Baldizón, presidential candidate, interferes, much less is the owner of elPeriódico, as she says."
Brazilian journalist José Marcondes was fired from the radio station where he was a political commentator and received threats in the aftermath of an opinion piece criticizing a senator from Mato Grosso, the journalist told the news site Repórter MT.
A columnist in Ecuador claimed censorship when his newspaper decided not to publish one of his pieces, saying they wanted to "avoid legal trouble," according to the organization Fundamedios.