News this week of major cutbacks to BBC World Service, including the end of BBC’s Caribbean service on March 31, has raised concerns over the loss of news for audiences in more than two dozen nations. At the same time, some journalists are pushing for the immediate creation of a Caribbean-based alternative.
A Panamericana Television crew was attacked by a group of thirty people while they covered a protest against a Lima law firm, headed by Orellana Rengifo, with alleged links to organized crime, La República reports. Cameraman Juan Carlos Vera’s right eye was injured by a rock and journalist Renzo Santana had multiple facial wounds, El Comercio explains.
The morning of Jan. 24, a helicopter for TV Globo was shot at three times as it attempted to film images of a police operation in a favela, or shanty town, in northern Río de Janeiro, reported Bom Dia Brasil. The shots to the base, center and tail of the aircraft forced the pilot to make an emergency landing at a nearby airport.
Colombian journalist Daniel Coronell, who faced off against former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, was named the vice president of news for the U.S. Spanish-language television station Univisión, reported EFE and Vanguardia on Jan. 21.
A T.V. crew for Milenio Televisión was attacked and restrained by a mob while working on an investigative report outside the ranch of the leader of an electricians union, in the town of Tetepango, north of Mexico City, reported local media.
Radio Faluma Bimetu/Coco Dulce, a station serving the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community in the Honduran coastal city of Triunfo de la Cruz, suspended transmissions this weekend due to “increasing threats and hostility” in the lead up to local elections, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) reports.
Guatemalan journalists Jorge Toledo and Norman Rodas, of Channel 2 in the department, or state, of Quiché, had just finished covering a press conference of the Patriotic Party on Saturday, Jan. 15, when they were attacked by persons identified as members of the political party's communications team, reported Cerigua.
The community station Friburgo FM is helping the citizens of Nova Friburgo find people missing in the Rio de Janeiro floods that have killed more than 600, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
A home-made bomb exploded Wednesday at the headquarters of Channel 9 in Asunción, Paraguay, but no one was injured, reported Paraguay.com. The explosive detonated near the station's antenna and left a hole in the wall of the building, according to the newspaper ABC Color.
The Inter-American Human Rights Commission on Jan. 11 condemned the harassment against community radio stations in Honduras by police and government officials, reported Univisión.