This article is part of the book, "Innovative Journalism in Latin America," published by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, with the help of Open Society Foundations' Program on Independent Journalism.
Well-known Argentine journalist Jorge Lanata was detained for eight hours and barred from entering Venezuela ahead of a controversial vote for a Constituent Assembly that will write a new constitution for the country.
“Good morning. This is the El Bus TV newscast, we’ve come to bring you these headlines.”
More than 100 countries in the world have a law in their national legislation that allows access to public information. Latin America is the region with developing countries that has advanced most in this respect, even surpassing certain aspects of the laws of European Union countries, according to the recent Unesco report, "Access to Information: Lessons from Latin America.”
In August 2016, Catalan journalist Ismael Nafría and his family traveled 5,330 miles from Barcelona to Austin, Texas to spend a year at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas, as part of its Journalist-in-Residence program. During that time, he wrote and published the book “The Reinvention of The New York Times,” coordinated a series of stories on journalistic innovation in Latin America (also published as an e-book) and has now launched a weekly newsletter on digital media innovation.
Daily obstacles motivated Panamanian journalists Ana Graciela Méndez and Alfonso Grimaldo to create El Tabulario – a project, launched at the end of May, which collects, analyzes and disseminates public data with the aim of promoting transparency in the country.
Civil society representatives from Uruguay called on their government to effectively implement the Law of Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA for its acronym in Spanish) and involve them in the development and implementation of the guidelines regulating it.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) documented the progress of jurisprudence on freedom of expression in the Americas in its recent report, “National Case Law on Freedom of Expression.” The report analyzes the time period from 2013 to 2016 in ten countries in the region.
Civil servants who do not comply with the Law on Access to Information (LAI) in Brazil are not punished, according to a recent report from Article 19 Brazil, an NGO that defends freedom of expression and the right to information. The report was launched in celebration of the five-year law, which became effective on May 16.
Fiquem Sabendo, an independent data journalism website founded by Brazilian journalist Léo Arcoverde, celebrates its two year anniversary in May with hundreds of reports and more than one thousand applications to the Law for Access to Information.