An ultraconservative group in Mexico blocked the press from entering Nueva Jerusalén, a town in the state of Michoacán where a serious conflict is ongoing between secular inhabitants that confront religious fanatics for public education rights, according to the news agency Quadratin.
On Monday, Aug. 27, Brazilian civil society organizations launched the campaign "Freedom of Expression--A New Law for a New Time," reported the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication. The campaign marks the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian Telecommunications Law and calls for a new "general communication law" that defends plurality, diversity, and equal access to media and telecommunications in the South American country.
What can be done to improve media coverage of international migration in the Americas? More than 50 journalists, specialists, and NGO representatives met in 2011, in Austin, TX, to discuss this issue. The highlights of their discussion is now available in a digital booklet by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, "Media Coverage of Migration in the Americas," which can be downloaded in Spanish and English.
After finishing a year at Harvard as a Latin American Knight Foundation Nieman fellow, Guatemalan journalist Claudia Méndez Arriaza created an interactive map "A life is a life." The map pinpoints homicides in Guatemala City, and, aside from visualizing the data, also includes the names of the victims in this capital city, one of the 10 most violent places in the world, where in 2011 106 of every 100,000 inhabitants was killed. Méndez was inspired by the journalism organization HomicideWatch, which aims to highlight homicides in Washington, D.C., as well as the International Symposium on Online Journalism conferen
According to a report published by the Coalition ProAccess movement, the right to access public information in Venezuela is being restricted by the government, reported the organization Espacio Público, on Monday Aug. 13.
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has partnered with Univision News to create investigative video stories aimed at Spanish speakers in the United States and Latin America, according to LA Observed.
A Brazilian photojournalist was arrested and handcuffed by a police officer while filming an accident involving a military police car that left five injured in Goiânia, on Thursday, Aug. 9, reported the news portal G1. The cameraman works for the TV station TV Goiânia in the state of Goiás.
A group of exiled Cuban activists in the United States is planning a fireworks display off Cuba's coast to demand Internet access and freedom of expression on the island on Saturday, Aug. 11, according to the EFE news agency.
Troubled by the introduction of bills that would create information crimes in Peru, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish) and several other international organizations penned an open letter to the Peruvian Congress regarding the right to freedom of information, reported the newspaper Perú21 on Tuesday, Aug. 7.
Since the Brazilian Law of Information Access went into effect on May 16, the Brazilian federal government has received 17,516 requests to access documents and other information.
Costa Rican journalists could go to prison for revealing "secret political information" according to a controversial new law, reported the newspaper La Nación de Costa Rica.
The Mexican federal government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Wednesday, July 11, creating controversy since the Senate and the Federal Commission of Telecommunications feared that signing the international agreement could put freedom of expression at risk.