“Of all the reasons that provoke violence against journalists, the most important one is impunity, it is the lack of investigation into the acts of violence and assassinations of journalists,” said Frank La Rue, UNESCO assistant director-general for communication and information, in a video commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, which takes place every Nov. 2.
For the second consecutive year, Mexico and Brazil are the only Latin American countries that are part of the Global Impunity Index by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which was published on Oct. 27.
Journalists covering mass protests against the Venezuelan government of President Nicólas Maduro fought to carry out their work despite restrictions in the form of government detentions, physical attacks and harassment during the Oct. 26 “Toma de Venezuela” (Taking of Venezuela).
At least six journalists were victims of different attacks after a pro-government group violently entered the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) on Oct. 23, according to freedom of expression organization Espacio Público.
Journalist Cándido Figueredo lives with his wife, and seven guards armed with machine guns, in what he likes to call “my prison.” With a mixture of irony and regret, Figueredo describes his house, which also serves as a branch of Paraguay’s largest newspaper ABC Color. For more than 20 years, Figueredo has lived with a 24-hour security escort, the only way to continue working as journalist in the dangerous city of Pedro Juan Caballero, on Paraguay’s border with Brazil.
A Colombian judge ordered the arrest of the Central Command (Coce) of the guerrilla group known as the National Liberation Army (ELN for its acronym in Spanish) for the kidnappings of six journalists and a driver this past May, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Brazilian journalist Evaldo de Oliveira, 49, was shot while distributing local newspapers on the evening of Sept. 26 in Franco da Rocha, a city in São Paulo state.
Aurelio Cabrera Campos, director of weekly El Gráfico in the state of Puebla, was shot on the night of Sept. 14 while driving on the highway in Huauchinango.
In a Sept. 14 judgment, the Council of the State of Colombia – the highest court that handles legal processes involving the state – found the Nation responsible for the murder of journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón Forero, which occurred on Aug. 13, 1999.
A Venezuelan journalist whose family has reported him as missing on two different occasions, has resurfaced in a detention center in Guárico state. Braulio Jatar Alonso was first reported missing by his family on Sept. 3.
September 10 marks one year since the murder of Colombian journalist Flor Alba Núñez in the city of Pitalito, in the department of Huila. In that time, her family, colleagues and organizations defending freedom of the press have fought to investigate the crime and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.
A gunman fatally shot Felipe David Munguía Jiménez, a cameraman for Canal 21 and a community leader, in the department of Jalapa in southeastern Guatemala on Sept. 4.