A cameraman for Brazil's TV Globo, William Santos, was tackled by three police officers in the streets of São Paulo on March 11. His video tape with material for SPTV news about police corruption disappeared after the scuffle, during which his camera was confiscated.
The director of the community radio station La Voz de Zacate Grande, who also is a peasant leader in the island of Zacate in the south of Honduras, was shot in the leg and hospitalized March 13, reported the newspaper La Prensa Gráfica.
Just two days after the release of a report on the state of press freedom in Mexico that denounced increasing police and military aggression against reporters, a photographer for the Televisa station was arrested and beaten by security agents in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on Friday, March 4, reported local press.
Brazil’s Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo says he wants to “comb through” the omnibus bill dealing telecommunications and broadcast regulation, O Estado de S. Paulo reports. The goal is to clarify the languages and provisions in the controversial bill that was initially proposed by Bernardo’s predecessor, Franklin Martins.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) called on Supreme Court to rule on the ownership and frequency concession of a local TV station, Canal 8, that was taken over by the government, El Heraldo reports.
Award-winning Mexican radio host Carmen Aristegui will be back on the air by Feb. 21, MVS Radio announced, two weeks after having fired the journalist for commenting on allegations that President Felipe Calderón was an alcoholic, the BBC reports.
When it comes to Twitter followers of Mexican newspapers, El Universal is the top bird with nearly half a million followers. Coming in at a distant second and third are Milenio and Reforma, with 148,077 and 101,567 followers, respectively.
Mexican media personality Carmen Aristegui, the award-winning host of one of the highest-rated radio programs in the county, was fired by MVS Radio after discussing allegations that President Felipe Calderón is an alcoholic, EFE reports.
A Venezuelan court sentenced Francisco Contreras to 15 years in prison for his role in the April 2010 kidnapping of Globovisión journalist Luis Núñez, El Universal reports.
Radio announcer Ivan Carlos de Oliveira Silva was arrested Jan. 26 in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia, and charged with extorting his former boss: businessman Diogo Medrado, son of Federal Deputy Marcos Medrado of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT). According to A Tarde, the host was fired from the younger Medrado’s station in December and had allegedly asked the businessman for almost $90,000 in cash and a $40,000 car to not release unflattering recordings.