Beto Ortiz, a well-known local media figure, was dismissed from Frecuencia Latina (Channel 2) for “editorial differences,” and his column in Perú21 has been discontinued. In an interview with Dedomedio magazine, the journalist claims that his departure from both media is a way to censor him for his "impertinence" in reporting irregularities in the transfer of ownership of América TV (Channel 4) to the media groups of El Comercio and La República during the administration of President Alejandro Toledo.
The U.S. government’s Radio and TV Martí broadcasts to Cuba reach fewer than 2 percent of people on the island, suffer from poor editorial standards, and have failed to make a meaningful influence on Cuban society, a U.S. Senate Committee reports (PDF) this week. See reports by AFP, the Miami Herald, Washington Post and Inter Press Service.
While Chile's president is pressured to sell his stake in a TV channel, Ecuador's Rafael Correa administration ordered the sale of parcels of shares in two TV stations that were seized by the state almost two years ago, El Universo reports.
TV host and radio broadcaster Handson Laércio was shot Wednesday, April 14, while leaving his home in Bacabal, Maranhão, to host his program on TV Mearim, the news portal Imirante reports. On entering his car, Laércio was confronted by his attacker and was shot in the hand.
Only a month after taking office, President Sebastián Piñera faces growing criticism by opponents and allies for not having transferred his ownership of the channel Chilevisión to a nonprofit organization as he promised during his campaign, La Nación and EFE report.
Mauricio Medina, founder of a community radio station for the Pijao indigenous people, was stabbed more than 20 times at his home Sunday in Ortega, Tolima (central Colombia), Reuters reports (Spanish). See a story in English by Colombia Reports.
On a week of nonstop aggressions and attacks against journalists in Latin America, this news post from journalist Martin Angel Tax alerts us to the shooting Thursday evening of Luis Felipe Valenzuela, director of the Emisoras Unidas radio network.
José Carlos Stachowiak, host of a police program on cable TV in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, made grave threats on the air against a journalism student who wrote a blog post criticizing his work. See the video in this post Querido Leitor (Dear Reader), by local journalist Rosana Hermann.
The government of President Tabaré Vázquez decided to fine radio and TV stations that refused to broadcast a statement last October in favor of overturning Uruguay's amnesty law, only three days before a national vote on the issue, El Espectador and Página 12 report.
The president's ongoing battle against what he calls the "oligarchic media" has added a new front. The radio program "Suddenly with Chávez" (De Repente con Chávez) began broadcasting Feb. 8, and as its name suggests, it can go on the air at any moment, the Guardian and Times of London report.
Héctor Cordero, a correspondent for TV Guatevisión in Quiché department (northwest of Guatemala City), says he has received phone calls threatening to kill him and warning that his family would pay the consequences for his work, Prensa Libre reports.
The vehicle of Adriana Aguirre San Millán was set ablaze outside the radio chain's offices in in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and a message left beside it warned that the same will happen to all other journalists, La Jornada and El Universal report. Aguirre owns the radio chain Organización Impulsora de Radio (OIR).