President Barack Obama is hosting his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderón this week on an official state visit to Washington that includes talks on bilateral issues such as immigration and drug violence on the U.S.–Mexico border. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the leaders to put Mexico’s press freedom crisis on their agenda.
The offices of Televisa’s Canal 2 in Tepic, Nayarit (on Mexico’s central Pacific coast) were attacked with AK-47s and grenades, La Jornada reports. The facilities suffered damage, but neither of the two people in the offices were wounded, Europa Press adds. (See this Associated Press article in English.)
In the first episode of a special series about violence against Mexican journalists in regions dominated by drug trafficking, CNN Mexico reports that 27 reporters have been threatened in Morelos state alone in central Mexico.
Tim Padgett reports in Time Magazine that two gunmen opened fire on Lucas Manzanares, a close aide to the publisher of one of Honduras’ leading newspapers, sparing him and his wife, who were driving in his pickup truck, but killing his daughter and granddaughter.
The Paraguayan Journalists' Union (SPP) says media workers in Ciudad del Este are subject to persecution, firings for political reasons, censorship, and threats, Última Hora reports. The union blames the city’s mayor and her supporters for the abuse.
The Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalina Botero, says that Latin America still faces major challenges to freedom of expression, despite advancements on political fronts. Botero reiterated the gravity of killings, attacks, threats, disappearances, and imprisonment of journalists, EFE reports.
Violence has made the border city of Ciudad Juárez one of the world's most dangerous cities and one of the riskiest places to practice journalism. The situation is such that several insurance companies will not sell life insurance to media workers, while others have added new surcharges to policies issued in the city, El Diario reports.
Human rights experts from the United Nations urged the government to take urgent measures to protect journalists in Honduras, where seven media workers have been assassinated since March 1, the AFP and EFE news agencies report.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has presented formal charges to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, regarding two Brazilian journalists whose alleged killers remain unpunished, IAPA reports.
Police authorities say they'll investigate charges that members of an anti-riot squad in Cali (western Colombia), beat reporters and photographers who were covering a Labor Day protest, RCN radio reports.
Public Security Minister Óscar Alvarez rejected the claims made by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations that point to the existence of an organized group that seeks to silence the Honduran press, Spain's El Mundo reports, with information from news agencies.
Óscar Rubio Cárdenas, 75, was killed in his apartment in Bogotá, apparently by two people who attempted to rob him, EFE reports.