Between January and June of 2020, Voces del Sur, a Latin American initiative, registered 630 aggressions against the press in the region. These went on the rise or worsened after governments issued a health emergency.
![Manifestaciones en La Paz, Bolivia, tras denuncias de fraude electoral. (Paulo Fabre [CC BY-SA 4.0]).](https://latamjournalismreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Manifestacione_La_Paz_s_enBolivia_en_contra_el_fraude_electoral_y_el_gobierno_de_Evo_Morales-e1591241333154.jpg)
In Bolivia, several media outlets and journalists have found it necessary to suspend their work in the face of the insecure environment that prevails in the country after three weeks of social demonstrations.
United not only by cultural and geographical similarities, but also by the type of problems that their countries face politically, economically and socially, seven journalistic organizations have formed the Voces del Sur alliance to systematize the monitoring freedom of expression in their countries.
The National Association of Bolivian Journalists (ANPB, for its initials in Spanish) and the Association of Journalists of La Paz (APLP) have declared an “emergency” in rejection of articles of the country’s new Penal Code the entities say could be used against professionals in retaliation for their work.
After meeting with media associations and journalists in Bolivia, the leaders of the country's legislature decided to exclude press professionals from controversial Article 200 of the new Penal Code, which sanctions bad professional practice.
Bolivian journalist Yadira Peláez, who accused Carlos Flores, a former manager of state-owned Bolivia TV, of sexual harassment, is being sued for economic damage to BTV in a complaint filed by the channel's management, according to El Deber.
Media and journalism associations in Bolivia are on alert due to a proposal to reform the Penal Code that is under debate in the country's Congress. They claim that Article 200 of the new Code, which provides for sanctions against professional misconduct, poses a threat to press freedom by opening the door to the criminalization of journalists in that country.
Bolivian journalist Yadira Peláez took matters into her own hands after she apparently felt an investigation into her complaint of sexual harassment was going nowhere.
The Bolivian government premiered the controversial 80-minute documentary, “The Cartel of Lies” (“El Cártel de la Mentira”), which generated profound rejection from journalist associations, activists and citizens of that South American country. The documentary was carried out by Juan Ramón Quintana, Bolivia’s minister of the presidency, and contains attacks against the country’s independent press.
A Bolivian judge shelved legal proceedings against journalist Humberto Vacaflor that were started after President Evo Morales filed a case against the journalist for criminal defamation.
A number of journalistic associations in Bolivia have protested against the creation of the documentary “El Cártel de la Mentira” (The Cartel of Lies), which was ordered by the Ministry of the President, led by Juan Ramón Quintana.
There is discord between the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales and a large sector of the media, as well as organizations defending freedom of expression, said Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), during a visit to La Paz, according to Página Siete.