Community radio station, Ibicoara FM, was set on fire the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 8, in the city of Ibicoara, located in the Brazilian state of Bahía, reported the blog Minuto Notícias. The door of the station had been forced open, and all of the broadcast equipment was burned.
A Peruvian journalist received a death threat and was told to stop investigating Corina de la Cruz, the mayor of Tocache in the region of San Martín, according to the news agency Inforegion.
Police in Uruguay's second largest city, Salto, opened an internal investigation on Jan. 19 to determine responsibility for an attack on the reporter Luis Díaz for the newspaper El Pueblo, reported the publication.
On Jan. 10, Bahia became the first Brazilian state to establish a Social Communication Council characterized as a "consultative and deliberative" body charged with creating a state communication plan, reported the newspaper A Tarde.
Since Honduran President Porfirio Lobo took office on Jan. 27, 2010, following disputed elections, 16 journalists in the Central American country have been killed and none of the crimes have been solved. In a 2010 report, the Committee to Protect Journalists claimed the “murders [of press workers] occurred in a politically charged atmosphere of violence and lawlessness.” The violence's political undertones have raised concerns about impunity and freedom of expression in Honduras in the wake of the 2009 coup d’état that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office.
Tensions between the Costa Rican press and President Laura Chinchilla's staff came to a head when the Journalists Union of Costa Rica sent a letter to her office demanding an explanation for recent obstacles and intimidatory acts against journalists, the organization reported.
Reporters Pablo Hernández and Ismael Villagómez of the Mexican newspaper Norte were arrested by city police while covering a police raid on pirated merchandise, according to Norte Digital. The police attacked the journalists, calling them "nosy," reported El Mexicano. Agents also arrested Univisión reporter Luis Escalera, added Tiempo.
Bolivian media outlets are applauding President Evo Morales’s plans to change a law that severely restricted coverage of judiciary elections, Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP) reports via IFEX.
Six months after Chilean community radio station Radio Tentación in November 2010 was closed and its equipment seized, the station's members find themselves on trial for broadcasting without authorization, reported the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, or AMARC.
In response to the violent death of journalist David Niño de Guzmán, which has still not been ruled a homicide or suicide, Bolivian media workers have called for better working conditions and life insurance, AFP reports.