The Peruvian Public Defender filed a constitutional complaint against one of the articles in Legislative Decree 1129 on Feb. 15, which it claims violates the constitutional right to "access public information," reported the newspaper La República. Article 12 of the decree declares that all information related to national security and defense is classified, added the newspaper.
A bill proposed in Honduras would create an organization to regulate media content, according to La Prensa.
On Feb. 5, security officers at the Venezuelan National Assembly prevented reporters from privately-owned newspapers from covering an event at the country's legislature in the capital, Caracas, reported the website La Patilla.
Pro-democracy organization Freedom House recently accused Venezuela’s chief national telecommunications company, CANTV, of denying access to the online newspaper Diario de Cuba after the publication ran a number of stories on the health of President Hugo Chávez in January.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) called on the Colombian authorities to provide more protection for journalists threatened in the country during the past month, according to statements from both groups.
Four days after a deadly explosion rocked the central offices of the Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, or PEMEX, in Mexico City, journalists are criticizing the lack of transparency and information about the blast that killed 35 people, according to CNN's website.
The governor of the Mexican state of Colima Mario Anguiano said last week that the federal government agreed with state governments not to report on violence to reduce the perception of insecurity in the country, according to the website SDP Noticias.
Colombia started off 2013 with a series of attacks on the press, including death threats against three journalists, censorship at the hands of criminal gangs and the interrupted distribution of a newspaper in the department of Sucre, reported the Press Freedom Foundation, FLIP, in a press release Thursday, Jan. 31.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) released a report on the status of journalism in Brazil on Thursday, Jan. 24.
Violence and abuses committed against Brazilian journalists during the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985 will now be closely investigated by the Memory, Truth and Justice Commission, launched by the National Federation of Journalists.
Brazil got off to a tragic start to the new year with the first killing of a journalist in 2013. The new year, however, also saw the launch of the Vlado Journalist Protection campaign, organized by the Vladimir Herzog Institute (IVH in Portuguese).
A new report from Microsoft Research highlights the role Twitter users in Mexico play in reporting violence from organized crime as an alternative to the censorship criminal groups exercise against traditional media.