On Tuesday, March 20, the governor of the Brazilian state of Piauí prevented journalists and press officers from attending a national Congress meeting, reported the news site Portal Imprensa.
Most attacks against the Mexican press come from police and military, and authorities are collaborating with organized crime by not investigating or punishing cases that harm freedom of expression, according to several Mexican media reporting on an upcoming study titled "Forced Silence: The State, Accomplice in Violence Against the Press in Mexico." The report is to be released by the press freedom organization Article 19 on Tuesday, March 20, in Mexico City.
A Bolivian journalist was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for defamation stemming from a article that linked a lawyer linked with corruption, reported the newspaper La Razón. This is the first criminal sentence against a reporter in Bolivia since 1997, added the news agency EFE.
An Argentine federal court convicted the newspaper Clarín for publishing an article that supposedly discriminates against women, reported the newspaper La Capital. Published on April, 5, 2009, the article, titled “The child factory: They conceive in numbers and obtain higher benefits from the state," was deemed "offensive" as it "inclined toward discrimination and psychological, sexual, and symbolic violence against women," reported the news agency UPI.
In yet another case of judicial censorship in Brazil, an injunction is preventing a journalist from criticizing the administration of the governor of the state of Mato Grosso, Silval Barbosa (PSDB), reported the news site Repórter MT.
Journalist Nelson Bocaranda criticized a presumed plan to discredit journalists who comment on controversial political events that happen in Venezuela, reported the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) on Monday, March 12.
On Monday, March 12, the World Day Against Cybercensorship, Reporters Without Borders released its "Enemies of the Internet" list for 2012, placing Cuba on the list of countries that restrict Web freedom. In 2011, Cuba also appeared on the list.
Venezuelan journalist Laure Nicotra criticized the arbitrary cancellation of the news program that she had hosted for five years on TV station Canal 7 in the state of Barinas in southeast Venezuela, reported the National Association of Journalists of Caracas.
On Thursday, March 1, a São Paulo court ruled that the newspaper publishing company Folha de Manhã does not have to pay damages to the Universal Church of God's Kingdom, reported the newspaper O Globo. Folha de Manhã publishes the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
On Feb. 17th, more than 300 newsroom employees of the Philadelphia Media Network (PMN) signed a statement demanding that the journalistic integrity of their work be upheld as the network negotiates its sale with private investor groups, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. The statement also expressed “dismay” that journalists’ coverage of the sale has been compromised and censored by corporate management, said Poynter and Politico.
After international outcry, on Monday, Feb. 27, Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa announced his decision to pardon journalists in the $40 million libel suit against the newspaper El Universo, its three owners and a former newspaper columnist, who were facing three years in prison. The president also dismissed the fine against the authors of a book detailing the president's alleged acts of nepotism, reported the Associated Press.
Lúcio Flávio Pinto, four-time winner of Brazil's most important journalism award, the Esso, said he would no longer appeal the libel lawsuit in which he was sentenced to pay roughly $4,600 in moral damages for articles accusing the owner of a company of landgrabbing in Pará, a region in northern Brazil, according to the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.