Bolivia's National Association of the Press (ANP) has condemned the aggression against journalists and the obstacles they face in covering politics, after a journalist and two videographers were attacked by a rock-throwing crowd of sympathizers of Sucre's Mayor-elect Jaime Barrón, reports Los Tiempos.
Dominican journalist Ramón Ramírez (Tito) was shot at five times Saturday night just minutes after he finished taping his television program, “Contenido Semanal,” according to El Nuevo Diario.
Luís Arturo Mondragón, news director for a local cable news channel, died after leaving work when two people shot him from the window of their vehicle in El Paraíso, east of the capital, El Heraldo reports.
Thirteen journalists and photographers from Michoacán state in southwestern Mexico were abducted for three hours during a government media tour to promote tourism in the region, the Associated Press reports.
"I've brought my rifle, and I’m going to shoot you,” Mayor Percy Fernández of Santa Cruz warned a TV reporter and a cameraman who had insisted on questioning him about his plan to reorganize the city’s public markets, Los Tiempos and El Mundo report.
Two local police officers and a third accomplice were indicted for last month's kidnapping and torture of journalist Gilvan Luiz Pereira, editor and owner of Jornal Sem Nome (Newspaper Without a Name), in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, the Diário do Nordeste newspaper reports.
A group of people in a car threw five Molotov cocktails at the headquarters of the Capriles newspaper chain, one of Venezuela's leading media conglomerates, Tal Cual and Últimas Noticias report.
Reporter Elisa Mejías and photojournalist Miguel Carrera, both of the newspaper La Prensa of Barquisimeto, died over the weekend when the car in which they were traveling overturned while they were being closely followed by another vehicle whose occupants presumably wanted to rob them, La Prensa and El Informador report. Two other journalists from the same newspaper were seriously wounded.
Two weeks before the second round of Colombia’s presidential election, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has released videos that show four police and a soldier held since the late 1990s are still alive, BBC and CNN report. The five hostages urge officials to hold talks with the rebels, BBC adds.
Journalists who cover environmental degradation are increasingly subject to threats and attacks, according to a new Reporters without Borders investigative report, “High-Risk Subjects: Deforestation and Pollution” (PDF file). Its publication is timed to coincide with World Environment Day (June 5).
It appears that the killing of reporter David Meza Montesinos will not go unpunished. After weeks of investigations, the attorney general has issued an arrest order against four people accused of killing the TV and radio reporter last March, Radio América and El Heraldo report.
José Jordy Veras Rodríguez, an attorney who appears regularly on the "Mañana Boreal" morning TV program on the privately owned Channel 25, was shot when he arrived at the station’s parking lot this week in Santiago de los Caballeros, the country’s second largest city. He was recovering in a local hospital, with heavily armed guards stationed outside the room, Listín Diario and El Nacional report. (See this report in English by Reporters Without Borders.)