On Dec. 9, Costa Rican courts opened an avenue to appeal criminal libel sentences thanks to an Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) case involving a defamation charge against a journalist, reported AFP.
Relatives of Juan José Hernández Andrade, the Mexican reporter detained since Dec. 1, said that they managed to raise funds to pay bail to release the journalist so that Hernández could continue his legal battle in freedom.
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, a Peruvian journalist was sentenced to two years in prison for defamation, reported the newspaper La Primera.
For the first time in 15 years, Cuba did not appear on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) census of jailed journalists, that organization reported Thursday, Dec. 8.
Mexican journalist Marco Lara Klahr released the book "No More 'Payers': a Guide to Journalism on the Presumption of Innocence and Criminal Justice Reform" to encourage Mexican journalists to respect the presumption of innocence when writing about suspects of violent crimes.
The Venezuelan National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) seized equipment from four radio stations in the northeastern state of Mongas for allegedly not having the appropriate license, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish) on Dec. 1.
Award-winning Colombian journalist Hollman Morris called on Congress to listen to the victims of wiretaps as testimony in the trial and investigation of former president Álvaro Uribe for illegal wiretapping and spying on journalists.
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.