Following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the daily routines of people around the world, some Latin American media are dedicating spaces for the voices of those who want to share their stories, particularly those from the front lines.
The Forum on the Right of Access to Public Information changed its composition and resumed activities to face threats against public transparency and to monitor compliance with the Access to Information Law (LAI, for its acronym in Portuguese) in Brazil.
As the isolation caused by the coronavirus alters people’s social habits, newspapers in Brazil have invested in alternatives to the news to engage readers.
Comprova, a Brazilian collaborative project that brings together 24 media outlets in the country, started what it calls a special phase to verify information about the new coronavirus.
MyNews, completed two years in 2019 with a growing audience of 345,000 subscribers, about 30 people on staff and more than half a million Reais in profit (about US $99,000).
After more than a year of expectation, the debut of CNN Brasil had much celebration and impact on social networks, but it also received criticism for cold content, little questioning in an interview with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
After 45 years, on March 16, federal prosecutors in Brazil charged former members of the military dictatorship for involvement in the death of journalist Vladimir Herzog.
The president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (IACHR-OAS), Joel Hernández García, described the current moment of freedom of expression in Brazil as "unusual."
Paraguayan correspondent Cándido Figueredo, who works in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, says the situation in the region is "very tense" after the murder of Brazilian journalist Lourenço Veras.
Despite the large number of scientific studies published each day in Brazil, finding the people behind the research can be a great challenge, and getting them to talk an even bigger one.