A Florida man was arrested last month for operating an illegal community radio station, according to NBC-2. Al Knighten, who faces a felony charge for unauthorized radio transmission and up to five years in prison, skipped his arraignment Monday, Jan. 9, to share the radio station's story at the Civil Rights on the Airwaves forum in Washington, D.C., reported the Ft. Myers News-Press.
More than 20 armed police officers searched the offices of a private television station in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago on Jan. 1, according to the International Press Institute (IPI).
Brazilian television broadcaster Rede TV! broke its contract with journalist Rita Lisauskas on Jan. 5, 2012 for "revealing proprietary information about the channel," according to the column Zapping in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. In December 2011, the anchor for the television news magazine "Rede TV! News" was suspended after she complained on her Facebook page about late salary payments at the broadcaster, reported the newspaper O Jornal.
On Jan. 6, Brazilian police accused a 16-year-old boy of allegedly killing journalist Laércio de Souza in Salvador, Bahia, reported Correio 24 horas.
The International Association of Radio Broadcasters (AIR) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asked the Brazilian authorities to carefully investigate the killing of journalist Laércio de Souza, a reporter for Rádio Sucesso in Camaçari, Bahia, reported the websites G1 and Terra.
The December holidays did not bring a respite for journalists under attack in Honduras. The Committee for Freedom of Expression in Honduras (C-Libre in Spanish) expressed concern that members of the National Police threatened a cameraman with death and intimidated a television correspondent during the last days of 2011. As a result, the Spanish organization Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT in Spanish) sent a letter to Honduran president Porfirio Lobo demanding efficient measures to stop aggression against journalists in Honduras, reported El Heraldo.
Brazilian journalist Laécio de Souza was shot to death the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 3, in the metropolitan area of Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia, reported G1. Police said the radio reporter had received threats on his cell phone minutes before he was killed, according to the news site Itaberaba Notícias.
An Argentine television reporter and cameraman were beaten, threatened with death, and ordered to strip when they tried to cover a human trafficking story about Bolivian families on a farm in the western province of Mendoza on Dec. 29, reported the official news agency Télam and Diario Uno.
A radio broadcaster was attacked live on the air by an assailant who invaded the studios of community radio station CS FM in the Brazilian city of Canoas in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, reported G1.
A TV news host in the Dominican Republic quit the station where he worked, live on the air, after station executives refused to air a video showing a politician's bodyguard shove a reporter, according to the newspaper Diario Libre.
The Honduran radio journalist Luz Marina Paz Villalobos was shot to death Tuesday, Dec. 6, in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, according to the Associated Press.
Brazilian soccer fans attacked news vans from TV Globo and Globosat on Dec. 4, near the Engenhão stadium in Rio de Janeiro, reported Uol.