In the early morning of Tuesday, March 6, a communications tower of a community radio station was destroyed in Santo Antônio do Leverger, roughly 20 miles from Cuiabá, capital of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The journalist in charge of the radio station, Júlio Pedroso, said he suspected that the vandalism was tied to political reasons, reported the news site Gazeta Digital.
The radio host of the program "Semicolon," Adolfo Superlano, requested protection from the prosecutor's office as the journalist said he felt threatened and feared being physically abused by officials of the state of Barinas, in southwest Venezuela, reported the network International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) on Friday, March 9.
The organization Reporters without Borders expressed concern that charges were dropped against the suspects in the killing of a journalist, cameraman Normando García, who was killed in the Dominican Republic on Aug. 7, 2008, reported the organization.
A journalist was abducted by armed kidnappers the night of Wednesday, March, 7, while he was waiting for his girlfriend at a university in Aracaju, capital of the state of Sergipe in Brazil, reported the news site G1.
A radio broadcaster became the 19th journalist killed in Honduras since 2010, prompting press groups to call for an investigation into the violence, reported the Associated Press.
A U.S. journalist working in Chile said he was unjustly arrested, and criticized the police brutality that has worsened since multiple protests erupted in Chile in May 2011, reported the news agency UPI.
A Paraguayan journalist said he received a death threat from Senator Robert Acevedo, reported the newspaper ABC Color on Friday, March 2. The senator denied the accusations, saying that it was an attempt to cause him political harm, added ABC Color.
Mexican senators approved a proposal ("dictamen de ley") that would require federal authorities to investigate, prosecute, and punish crimes against journalists or any attacks affecting the rights to access of information, freedom of expression or of the press, according to a statement from the Senate.
A Haitian radio journalist was shot to death Monday, March 5, in Cité Soleil, the poorest neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, reported Reporters Without Borders.
Three Guatemalan journalists were assaulted by prison guards while investigating prison conditions, reported the newspaper Prensa Libre on Wednesday, Feb. 29.
A coalition of about 50 media outlets in Mexico published a statement calling on authorities to guarantee safety for journalists of the newspaper Seminario Zeta, which is published in the border city of Tijuana, and which recently has received threats from a criminal gang, reported the news agency EFE.
A team of television journalists from Globovisión in Venezuela was threatened while covering attacks by supporters of President Hugo Hugo Chavez against opposition candidate Henrique Caprilles Radonski in Cotiza, a neighborhood in the capital city of Caracas, according to Globovisión.