A bomb exploded in Bogota, Colombia, almost taking the life of ex-official turned journalist Fernando Londoño Hoyos, and leaving at least two dead and 40 people injured while creating chaos, panic, and confusion in the capital on Tuesday, May 15, reported the Daily News and the news agency EFE.
Just hours after Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said that kidnapped journalist Alfredo Villatoro was still alive, the secretary of Public Security denied this information and announced that on the night of Tuesday, May 15, authorities discovered the dead body of the prominent radio journalist who worked for HRN, the most prominent Honduran radio station, reported BBC news.
Another journalist from the Brazilian state of Maranhão has reported threats after the killing of journalist Décio Sá, reported the website Gazeta da Ilha on Monday, May 14. Other reporters and publishers of the state said they received frequent threats. Sá's friends say that he received threats before he was shot to death in a bar in São Luiz.
On Monday, May 14, the Newseum held a special re-dedication ceremony for its Journalists Memorial, adding the names of the 70 journalists who died on the job in 2011 and two who died in previous years, reported MediaBistro.
For the second time in one week, an armed group opened fire against a Mexican newspaper's headquarters in the state of Tamaulipas that is commonly harassed by organized crime. The attack happened the night of Friday, May 11, against the newspaper El Mañana of Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas border, according to Proceso. Previously, on May 7, another similar attack against the newspaper Hora Cero in the city of Reynosa was reported.
A Mexican reporter was found dead in the trunk of his car in the city of Cuernavaca, about 52 miles from Mexico City, reported the news agency AFP.
Brazilian Rep. Márcio Reinaldo Moreira slapped a reporter from the TV program Custe o que Custar (CQC) in the face, the night of Tuesday, May 8, in Brasilia, reported the portal UOL. Reporter Felipe Andreoli, victim of the attack, was interviewing the representative about the proposed constitutional amendment on slave work in Brazil and asked the politician if he didn't think it was unfair for the people to have to wait so long for such proposal to be voted on, according to the news site R7.
On Thursday, May 10, an appeals court ruled on the killing of Peruvian journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández in 2004 and absolved former Mayor Luis Valdez Villacorta of Coronel Portillo and former City Manager Zolio Ramírez Garay who were accused of being the masterminds behind the crime, reported the Press and Society Institute.
Although Bolivian President Evo Morales accused the press of distorting information on the same day the country celebrated Journalists' Day, on Thursday, May 10, the president said that freedom of the press in the country is "guaranteed" and approved a bill giving journalists life insurance, reported the news agency EFE, the newspaper La Razón, and the radio station FM Bolivia.
Amid Argentine public officials' mounting attacks against the press, the Inter American Press Association asked the Argentine government to "stop harassing and stigmatizing journalists,” reported the news agency Los Andes. The call comes as two more Argentine journalists were victims of officials' anti-press attitudes.
A journalist was surprised when he found a dynamite stick on his apartment's balcony in the city of Matozinhos in the state of Minas Gerais, on Saturday, May 5, reported the newspaper Estado de Minas. Oswaldo Mesquita, news site editor for Informatoz, was at his home with his wife, two kids, and other family members. There was no explosion, reported the news site G1.
According to Peruvian police, the mayor of Comandante Noel, Marco Rivero Huerta, is the mastermind behind the killing of journalist Pedro Flores Silva who was killed in September 2011 in Casma, reported the newspaper La República.