Brazil, Chile and the United States tumbled dramatically in the 2011-2012 Press Freedom Index that Reporters Without Borders released Wednesday, Jan. 25. Brazil dropped 41 places to no. 99, Chile plummeted 47 places to no. 80, and the United States fell 27 spots to no. 47.
Since it launched in September 2011, thousands of journalists have signed on to use the Facebook "subscribe" feature, which allows users to subscribe to the news feeds of journalists and public figures without having to befriend them. And since November, the average journalist has seen a 320 percent increase in the number of subscribers, Facebook is reporting.
The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) published a report criticizing the Ecuadoran government for measures taken against freedom of the press and expression.
Taking advantage of YouTube's massive audience -- the online site streams 4 billion videos a day and one hour of video is uploaded every second -- the Reuters news agency has announced the launch of Reuters TV, which will offer 10 different shows on the Reuters YouTube channel, according to Mashable.
Knowing how to write source code and manage data sets are skills no longer reserved for nerds; data journalism is a growing field in reporting. But, if you're not part of the (big) group of journalists that aren't familiar with coding, you can still take advantage of some digital tools to lessen the work behind a story.
Amy Webb didn’t have to look far for an example of how Spark Camp, an "un-conference" she helps organize, pulls disparate people together for an informal exchange of ideas and problem solving. Co-hosted by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americasand the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, Spark Camp attracted an impressive variety of talented people to spend three days in January — in Austin — to ruminate on the crossroads of data and online journalism.
A military judge has recommended that Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, face a court martial, reported the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Jan. 12.
Honduran freedom of expression NGO C-Libre accused a regional office of the Honduran National Commission of Human Rights (CONADEH) of restricting journalists from taking photos, videos, and interviewing immigrants held in a detention center in the city of Choluteca, in the south of the country.
Journalists have joined the growing list of groups opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration by the U.S. congress, according to the Washington Post.
In a landmark decision for the press, the Brazilian Supreme Court of Justice ruled that a suspect's "presumed innocence" does not impede the press from reporting critical facts about the case.
A Guatemalan sports reporter claimed that a member of the board of directors of the Cobán Imperial soccer team tried to prevent him from entering the stadium to cover a game.
On Nov. 28, federal officials kept a reporting team from the Venezuelan television network Globovisión from covering a meeting between President Hugo Chávez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in the capital Caracas, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish).