A Honduran court ordered the arrest of three more suspects in the kidnapping and killing of radio journalist Alfredo Villatoro, reported the newspaper El Heraldo. The suspects arrested are Marvin Alonso Gómez, Osmán Fernando Osorio Arguijo, and Edgar Francisco Osorio Arguijo, who are accused of conspiracy and illegal arms possession, according to La Tribuna. Their arrests make a total of eight suspects detained for the crime against the journalist, who was the news director for HRN, one of the most influential radio stations in Honduras, said the newspaper La Prensa.
The mayor of the Brazilian city Barra dos Bugres (in Mato Grosso) grabbed a reporter by the neck when she was trying to interview him for the TV channel Independência, which is affiliated with the station Record, on Thursday, May 24, reported the newspaper O Dia. The attack happened during a City Council event that took place in a stadium of that city.
As a consequence of complaints made to the Journalists Association of La Paz by a former commander of the National Police of Bolivia, a Bolivian journalist denied being guilty of extortion and said that he was threatened, reported the newspaper La Razón.
Miguel Ángel López Solana, son of the Mexican columnist brutally killed in the state of Veracruz along with his family in June 2011, described to participants of the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas the ordeals he faced to flee Mexico because of fear that his life was in jeopardy.
The Venezuelan Public Prosecutor initiated an investigation into the attacks against official media journalists from the National Public Media (SNMP in Spanish), on Thursday, May 24, reported El Universal. The investigation was announced by Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz on the Venezuelan National Radio station's Thursday show.
On Friday, May 25, a Brazilian journalist was arrested in Syria, and then let free by local authorities shortly after the arrest, according to the news agency EFE.
The Mexican newspaper Reforma said that the house of editor Lázaro Ríos Cavazos was raided on the night of Tuesday, May 22, according to the Wednesday's newspaper edition.
Outraged by the killing of 22 journalists in Honduras since January 2010, communication workers from this country marched to protest the impunity of crimes against journalists and to demand protection of freedom of expression on Friday, May 25, Day of the Journalist in Honduras, reported the newspaper Proceso.
After the killing of his family and five of his colleagues, Mexican reporter and photographer Miguel Ángel López Solana urged journalistic organizations to protect journalists in the state of Veracruz on Tuesday, May 22, during the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, themed Security and Protection for Journalists and organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations.
A Honduran judge ordered arrest warrants for five suspects in the kidnapping and killing of journalist Alfredo Villatoro, reported the news agency AFP on Tuesday, May 22.
The 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas kicked off the night of Sunday, May 20, with an examination of some of the major security issues facing journalists throughout the Americas. During the Forum's opening session, Frank La Rue, the United Nations' special rapporteur for freedom of expression, along with newspaper editors from Mexico and Guatemala, highlighted the risks of independent reporting in a region increasingly racked by violence, corruption and rampant impunity.
One day after reporter Marcos Ávila was kidnapped by three armed men in the Mexican state of Sonora, authorities found the journalist's body strangled and with signs of torture. A message that has been attributed to drug-traffickers was found next to the body, reported the newspaper El Universal on the afternoon of Friday, May 18.