For the third time since September, a division of Grupo Reforma-owned newspaper El Norte was hit with a grenade in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, Vanguardia reports.
A Colombian journalist was hit with two tear gas canisters as he covered student protests at a university in the capital city of Bogotá, while two regional media directors received death threats after one was attacked in a different protest, Periodistas en Español reports.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has filed a case against Colombia in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for failing to provide justice and protection for journalist Luís Gonzalo “Richard” Vélez Restrepo, who was attacked by soldiers in 1996, while filming farmers protesting the destruction of coca crops. See reports in English by the IACHR and Colombia Reports.
Police in Rio de Janeiro have identified the car used in the nearly fatal shooting of a blogger, Ricardo Gama, reported the news site Terra. As such, it will be easier to identify the shooter, said prosecutor Bruno Gilabert.
Nine years after the assassination of the deputy editor of La Patria newspaper, Orlando Sierra, two influential Colombian politicians from the interior were accused of being the masterminds of his killing, and they were ordered imprisoned to prevent them from fleeing, RCN Radio reports.
A TV reporter was wounded in the face after police fired tear gas while he was covering a teachers' protest in Tegucigalpa, the capital, Hora Cero reports. See this summary in English by Reporters Without Borders.
Only hours after a TV host was killed in northern Mexico, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported the disappearance of another journalist in Mexico, where in the last four years violence linked to drug trafficking has exploded.
TV host José Luis Cerda of the Televisa network was found assassinated in the northern city of Monterrey—which in recent months has become the site of several attacks on media and aggression on the press by organized crime. He was kidnapped the day before by a group of armed men, Terra reports.
Blogger Ricardo Gama was shot three times the morning of Wednesday, March 23 in Copacabana in southern Rio de Janeiro, according to O Globo. The blogger was taken to the hospital where he was in serious condition, reported Estado de São Paulo.
Riot police threw a teargas canister at journalist Lidieth Díaz and cameraman Adolfo Sierra for TV Cholusat Sur, attempting to stop the pair from filming a teacher protest in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, Revistazo.com reports.
The commissioner of the Institute of Access to Public Information (IAIP) threatened to take legal action against Revistazo.com reporter Eleana Borjas who was trying to interview him about his vote on an information request issue, C-Libre reports.
Reporters without Borders (RSF) reports that it has received a copy of a new set of threats against journalists and human rights activists in Colombia from the Black Eagles paramilitary group, which for the last five years has engaged in acts of violence and intimidation against the press.