After avoiding prison for more than a decade due to appeals, Brazil’s top court has said reporter Pimenta Neves must serve his 15-year sentence for murdering his ex-girlfriend shortly after their breakup in 2000, The Associated Press reports.
Veteran journalist Jineth Bedoya, currently an editor for El Tiempo newspaper, has filed a claim against the Colombian government at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for failing to fully investigate the kidnapping and sexual assault she suffered in 2000, The Associated Press reports.
An unidentified cameraman for a local broadcaster in the northern Mexican state of Durango was filming a May 23 car accident when he was shot three times by gunmen who attacked police responding to the incident, Milenio reports.
Reporters from Vive TV told prosecutors they were attacked by allies of Henri Falcón, the governor of the northeastern Venezuelan state of Lara, while covering a protest against the state’s water utility company, Hidrolara, Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV) reports.
Journalism organizations and freedom of expression groups in Argentina gathered May 24 to protest a violent attack against El Guardián photographer Julián Herr, who was taking photos of the Danish Embassy in Buenos Aires for a story, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) repots.
Barely a week after Honduran journalist Francisco Medina Polanco was killed, Luis Mendoza – the owner of the Canal 24 TV station – was gunned down by masked men on May 19, 2011, The Associated Press reports.
The Brazilian police used tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets against protesters and journalists covering a May 21 march in São Paulo in favor of marijuana legalization and freedom of expression, iG reports.
Journalist Yensi Roberto Ordóñez was found dead of apparent stab wounds inside a car in the southern Guatemalan city of Nueva Concepción, Escuintla, EFE reports.
A retired police general was called to testify about the kidnapping and sexual abuse of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya in 2000, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The criminal court of Lima, Perú, began a new trial for the killing of a journalist, named Alberto Rivera, who was shot by hitmen in April 2004 after denouncing a mayor for corruption, according to La República.
Journalist and political activist Wilfred Iván Ojeda Peralta was found dead of a bullet wound to the head in the northern city of Revenga, Aragua, Reuters reported. Ojeda’s body was discovered Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
Reiterating statements by other organizations about the dangers the Latin American press faces, Amnesty International has issued a new report that names Latin America as one of the most dangerous regions in the world for journalists, according to CNN.