On the evening of Oct. 3, Brazilian journalist Francisco Cidimar Ferreira Sombra was attacked and gunmen fired several shots at his home in the city of Russas in the northeastern state of Ceará, reported Ceará Agora. The shots narrowly missed the room where the journalist's son sleeps.
Chilean journalists were attacked and arrested by police Thursday, Oct. 6, while covering riots that resulted from a student march in Santiago, Chile, reported radio station Uchile.
One year after the alleged attempted coup d’etat that shook Ecuador on Sept. 30, 2010 (known as 30S), Fundamedios published a report about attacks against the media and freedom of expression in the country. The report studies attacks before and after 30S, and shows a significant increase in the number of aggressions against journalists in the last year.
Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo has suspended the Indian-Hindu television station, channel CNS-TV6, during the four-month campaign window for the presidential elections, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Gunmen fired six shots into the car of Brazilian reporter Sérgio Ricardo de Almeida da Luz on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 5, in the city of Toledo in the southern state of Paraná, reported the website O Paraná. The car was parked outside the reporter's home. No one was in the car during the attack.
The International Press Institute (IPI) announced that 12 Latin American journalists received death threats in the last month. The grim practice has become disturbingly common in countries like Honduras and Peru, where the highest number of cases originated.
A member of the Colombian criminal organization Los Urabeños called in to a radio show in the northern city of Valledupar saying that he had been ordered to attack a journalist and several other individuals, reported the Colombian Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP in Spanish).
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression said he would ask the Honduran government permission to investigate the killings of 16 journalists in the Central American country since the June 2009 coup d'état, reported the news agency EFE.
An arsonist burned the offices of a radio station broadcasting out of the town of Zárate, north of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, reported the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish).
Police detained two suspects for the killing of two reporters in Mexico City, reported the newspaper El Universal. The reporters, Marcela Yarce and Rocío González Trápaga, were killed in an abandoned property on the evening of Sept. 1, on their way to exchange one million Mexican pesos (more than U.S. $72,000) into U.S. dollars, reported the EFE news agency.
The director-general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, condemned the killing of Brazilian journalist Valderlei Canuto Leandro, who was shot eight times by unidentified men on Sept. 1 in the city of Tabatinga, in the Amazons, UNESCO reported on Sunday, Oct. 2.
A drug dealer threatened two radio hosts in the northern Argentine province of Salta, reported the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish).