A legal appeal for protection in support of the Chilean journalist that was suspended for satirizing a tribute to former dictator Augusto Pinochet, on the TV channel Chilevisión on June 8, was presented by the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees.
On Wednesday, June 27, Reporters Without Borders expressed its concern over for freedom of information in Paraguay after the controversial impeachment and removal -- what some are calling a coup -- of President Fernando Lugo on June 22. Since then, the new government has attempted to censor the public television station TV Pública de Paraguay. The channel was launched as the country's first public TV station in May 2011.
With the Venezuelan presidential elections just three months away, attacks against the press and journalists will most likely increase, warned the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). WAN-IFRA visited Venezuela from June 4-6 and found that independent media were polarized and weakened.
A Chilean reporter was suspended after satirizing a tribute to the former dictator Augusto Pinochet during the news program “Ultima Mirada” on the channel Chilevisión. Despite much criticism, the Chilean TV station denied taking the reporter off the air, reported the digital newspaper El Mostrador.
The Ecuadorian government confirmed that members of the presidential cabinet will no longer give interviews to private news media outlets, reported the Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios. Aside from this attack on freedom of the press, Fundamedios also reported the closure of the ninth news media outlet in less than one month in the country.
In its biannual Global Transparency Report, Google reported that in the past six months, the Internet giant has received more than 1,000 requests from governments around the world to take down information, whether YouTube videos or search listings, according to CNET. This "alarming" level of steadily increasing government censorship included 187 requests from the U.S. government to remove 6,192 pieces of content, 42 percent of which Google complied with, Google said. That's a 103 percent increase over the previous six-month period, reported Politico.
The city of San Fernando, in the Venezuelan state of Apure, removed the Friday, June 8, edition of the weekly magazine Notisemana from circulation for not having a filed registration with the city's Autonomous Tax Service, reported Globovisión. The National Association of Journalists (CNP in Spanish) of Apure-Amazonas criticized the city's actions, which it considered arbitrary.
In only 15 days, four radio broadcasters and two TV channels were closed in Ecuador, reported the news agency EFE. The Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios reported that the closed news media outlets are the TV channels Telesangay (of the province of Morona Santiago), Lidervisión (from Napo), and the radios stations El Dorado (from Sucumbíos), Líder (from Napo), Pantera (from Pichincha), and Net (from Tungurahua), reported the news paper El Comercio.
On Saturday, June 9, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that he is considering preventing public officials from granting interviews to for-profit, private news media, in an attempt to financing those families that own these news media outlets, reported the news agency EFE.
Cuban authorities have given independent journalist Alexis Ferrer 72 hours to leave the island, reported the site Cuba Encuentro.
DIssident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez filed a request with the country's Ministry of the Interior for an explanation of why the Office for Immigration and Foreigners’ Affairs denied her permission to leave the island and travel abroad, reported El Nuevo Herald.
In a report by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. heavily criticized the Argentine government for limiting freedom of press in the country, and said that there is too much violence against the press and opposition journalists, accusing the government for being responsible for several measures that do not allow for freedom of expression in Argentina, reported the newspaper Clarín.