"On Tuesday [May 30], the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity (FECI, by its acronym in Spanish) of Guatemala's Public Prosecutor's Office asked for 40 years in prison for journalist José Rubén Zamora, founder of Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, for alleged crimes of money laundering, influence peddling and blackmail. The prosecution's request is for 20 years in […]
“On May 19, prosecutors accused Víctor Ticay, a correspondent for the Nicaraguan TV station Canal 10, of treason and cybercrime, according to multiple news reports. He has been held at a police station in Managua, the capital, since he was arrested while covering an Easter celebration on April 6. [...] Those news reports said that […]
“On Monday, May 22, a criminal court in the capital city of Santiago [Chile] sentenced [Víctor] Herrero, editor of the independent news website Interferencia, on defamation charges and ordered him to pay the legal costs of the trial and a fine of 126,000 Chilean pesos (US $157), according to news reports, a report by his […]
"The US Supreme Court on Thursday [May 11] ruled against a group of Puerto Rico journalists who were seeking documents from the island’s financial oversight board, saying that the board is protected from such information requests by sovereign immunity. The case, ‘Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Centro de Periodismo Investigativo,’ asked […]
"On the night of April 11, former senator [and former president] Álvaro Uribe wrote on his Twitter account a correction about the accusations against journalist Daniel Coronell: 'He is not a drug trafficker,' he said. This post came hours after the Prosecutor's Office had summoned Uribe and Coronell to a proceeding to transfer an accusation […]
"Nearly a hundred journalists from various media outlets in Guatemala staged a demonstration on Saturday [March 4] in front of the country's Supreme Court in protest for a judge's decision to investigate nine journalists due to their publications on different allegations. The demonstration was also to protest against the case of another journalist critical of […]
"On Monday morning [March 6], the Criminal Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of San José convicted journalist Marlon Mora Jiménez of two counts of defamation against former presidential candidate and criminal lawyer Juan Diego Castro Fernández. According to the [radio] news show 'Interferencia,' the ruling imposed a fine of CRC 600,000 [about US $1,000] […]
"In the hearing where the president of elPeriódico, José Ruben Zamora, was indicted for a second case in which he is accused of conspiracy to obstruct justice, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested that the investigation be extended to journalists and independent news outlets. It argues that their publications hindered the work of the Public Prosecutor's […]
"The Tenth Court of First Criminal Instance [of Guatemala] convicted this Tuesday, Feb. 21, attorney Mario Castañeda, who defended the president of the newspaper elPeriódico, José Rubén Zamora. [...] Judge Jimmi Bremmer issued a three-year commuted prison sentence against the lawyer for the crime of conspiracy to obstruct justice. [...] The head of the Special […]
"The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) denounced the continued abuse of defamation lawsuits against Panamanian media and journalists and the preventive seizure of their assets as mechanisms of intimidation and gagging to curb critical journalism. The IAPA endorsed the recent expressions of its regional vice-presidency in Panama, the National Council of Journalists (CNP, by its […]