A journalist and a cameraman for the news show CM& on Colombia’s TV Canal 1 were attacked with rocks and sticks by people living in a mining zone in northeastern Colombia, while seeking interviews with locals about a Canadian mining company's decision to postpone a project, El Tiempo reports.
The Honduran government told the U.N. that it would implement measures to improve the state of free expression and protect press workers from the wave of violence that has affected the country, El Heraldo reports.
The killing of journalist Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, editor general of Zeta weekly, was allegedly ordered by Javier Arellano Félix, then leader of the Tijuana Cartel, the gang that controls the drug trade between the Mexican border city of the same name and the United States, the Committee Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.
A cameraman for Brazil's TV Globo, William Santos, was tackled by three police officers in the streets of São Paulo on March 11. His video tape with material for SPTV news about police corruption disappeared after the scuffle, during which his camera was confiscated.
Amidst the “information blackout” generated by drug trafficking violence along the U.S.-Mexican border, social network sites have transformed into a fundamental information source for citizens, but they cannot replace Mexican journalism, said veteran Mexican journalist Jacinto Rodríguez, who spoke recently at the University of Texas at Austin about journalism and violence.
The director of the community radio station La Voz de Zacate Grande, who also is a peasant leader in the island of Zacate in the south of Honduras, was shot in the leg and hospitalized March 13, reported the newspaper La Prensa Gráfica.
A group of civil society organizations is demanding greater safety and protection for journalists and human rights activists in Mexico, especially in the eastern and northern regions of the country where the most aggression occurs, reported the newspaper La Jornada.
Cameraman Arturo Sandoval, from Canal 2 Frecuencia Latina, was taken to the hospital after being hit by the car driving Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala to a debate in Lima, La República reports.
Alexandre Rolim, journalist for the news site Parecis.net, accused Mauro Berft, mayor of Campo Novo do Parecis, in the state of Mato Grosso, of having threatened and attacked him on March 11. According to the reporter, the mayor was upset by some articles Rolim had published.
Reporter Andrei Netto, Libya correspondent of O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, was freed by government forces Thursday after being held for eight days. He was expected to return soon to Paris, where he lives, Reuters reports.
A special court in San Salvador sentenced 11 of the 31 suspects charged in the 2009 killing of a photographer to between four and 30 years in prison, reported EFE and La Prensa Gráfica.
Gabino Cue, governor for the Mexican state of Oaxaca, has created a special prosecutor's office to re-open the investigations into the deaths of 26 people -- including New York journalist Bradley Will -- who were killed during protests against the government in 2006, reported Milenio and the Associated Press.