Between 1999, when Hugo Chávez first became President of Venezuela, and June 2012, the country's television and radio stations have been forced to broadcast 2,334 president speeches, amounting to a total of 97,561 minutes of broadcasting.
Authorities in the city of Puerto de Cortés have issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in the assassination attempt on a journalist in Honduras, reported the organization Committee for Free Expression in Honduras (C-Libre in Spanish).
Three Panamanian television journalists were absolved of defamation charges stemming from the broadcast of a video showing a police officer being bribed, reported the newspaper La Estrella on Tuesday, July 17.
A team of reporters from the Venezuelan TV channel Televen were attacked on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 10, as shots were fired from the roof of the National Prison of Maracaibo, better known as the Sabaneta prison, in the state of Zulia.
A Colombian radio journalist was hit in the face while trying to report about citizen complaints in the tax office of the Gobernación de Bolívar in Cartagena, Colombia, reported the newspaper El Universal.
On Thursday, June 28, Venezuela's Supreme Court declared an "executive embargo" on the holdings of television station Globovisión until the station pays a $5.6 million fine for covering riots at the prison El Rodeo.
In less than two weeks, a third radio station was attacked with dynamite in Bolivia, in the southeastern city of Oruro, during the early morning hours on Tuesday, June 26, the Sole Union Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB in Spanish) reported, according to the Fide News Agency (ANF in Spanish).
A Chilean reporter was suspended after satirizing a tribute to the former dictator Augusto Pinochet during the news program “Ultima Mirada” on the channel Chilevisión. Despite much criticism, the Chilean TV station denied taking the reporter off the air, reported the digital newspaper El Mostrador.
Two radio stations were attacked with dynamite in Colquiri, Bolivia, an area rife with protests and conflicts over mining. The attacks left 23 people injured and forced the radio stations to suspend broadcasting from June 14 to 15, reported Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday, June 19. Reporters Without Borders also called for the attacks to be investigated, and for journalists to be better protected.
A Guatemalan TV reporter was injured while covering the eviction of university student protesters, reported the news agency AFP.