In two separate events, police attacked journalists in Mexico on Jan. 30. A reporter from the newspaper Noroeste was beaten by judicial police and his camera was taken, reported the same publication. Hours later, the reporter recovered his camera but the officers had deleted the photos he had taken of a skirmish in which three soldiers died in the city of Guasave, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
An Argentine photojournalist received text messages threatening his life after he did not photograph a musical group performing at a Carnival celebration in Corrientes, Argentina, reported CorrientesHoy.
At least three journalists were attacked while covering a violent protest in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, reported the newspaper Jornada. Protesters from the Indigenous Council of the South also injured more than 20 police officers during the demonstration.
A Mexican journalist in Canada is fighting deportation, arguing that returning to Mexico is a death sentence for her and her family, reported CBC News and the Canadian Press. Karla Berenice Garcia Ramirez, who wrote about government corruption, sought asylum in Canada in 2008, but her application was denied in 2010, and in November 2011 a deportation order was issued, the Vancouver Sun explained.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro ranted against the foreign press for reporting on the Jan. 19th death of political prisoner William Villar who had been on a hunger strike while in a prison in Santiago de Cuba, according to the newspaper Diario de Cuba.
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.
“Mexico is a magical country where there are murders, but no murderers,” said the Mexican poet Homero Aridjis, protesting the rampant impunity in crimes against journalists during an international delegation of writers -- including several Nobel laureates -- organized by the group PEN International, held Sunday, Jan. 29, in Mexico City. The group, including Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa and Toni Morrison of the United States, took out a full-page ad in the El Universal newspaper that was signed by 170 writers and celebrated the bravery of journalists in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.
A Chilean military court sentenced a police officer to 541 days in prison for attacking a photojournalist for the EFE news agency who was covering a protest in the coastal city of Valparaíso, on May 21, 2008, reported the newspaper La Nación.
Brazilian journalists covering anniversary celebrations for the city of São Paulo were intimidated and attacked by protesters in Praça da Sé, in the city center, on Jan. 25, reported the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo.
Brazilian journalist Karen Santiago was kidnapped the evening of Jan. 19 while photographing flooding in a neighborhood in the city of São Paulo, reported Jornal na Net.
A reporting team for the Venezuelan television broadcaster RCTV was attacked at the Central University of Venezuela's (UCV in Spanish) communications school while covering violence that erupted after the release of student election results on Jan. 18, reported the organization Public Space.
Reporting on the repossession of land seized in the community of Pinheirinho, in São José dos Campos in the interior of the state of São Paulo, has been marred by police brutality and the curtailment of press freedom.