The editor-in-chief of the Venezuelan weekly newspaper Sexto Poder, Leocenis García, was released from prison and taken to a private clinic the night of Nov. 21 after spending 12 days on a hunger strike in prison to protest the charges against him, reported El Nacional.
A court in Ecuador has ratified a six-month prison sentence against a radio broadcaster accused of defaming a doctor two years ago, according to IFEX.
Leocenis García, editor of the Venezuelan newspaper 6to Poder, announced on Nov. 9 that he would go on a hunger strike for an "undetermined time" to reinvigorate the appeal against his detention, reported El Universal. García was arrested Aug. 30 after publishing a cover satirizing several female members of President Hugo Chávez's administration.
The Human Rights Foundation sent a letter to the judges of the Second Criminal Chamber of Ecuador’s National Court of Justice asking them to accept an appeal of the libel sentence against journalist Emilio Palacio and the owners of the El Universo newspaper, reported the same organization. The accused face three years in prison and $40 million in damages.
Brazilian journalist José Marcondes was fired from the radio station where he was a political commentator and received threats in the aftermath of an opinion piece criticizing a senator from Mato Grosso, the journalist told the news site Repórter MT.
A columnist in Ecuador claimed censorship when his newspaper decided not to publish one of his pieces, saying they wanted to "avoid legal trouble," according to the organization Fundamedios.
Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo decided to postpone the four-month suspension against the private opposition television broadcaster CNS until Dec.1, instead of the original Oct. 3 date, according to Reporters Without Borders.
A Colombian court sentenced the newspaper Cundinamarca Democrática's founder and editor to 20 months in prison and a $5,500 fine for criminal libel, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Brazilian military hindered camera crews from filming in the Complexo do Alemão, a collection of 13 slums, or favelas, outside Rio de Janeiro, on Oct. 3, reported the website Consciência.net. The favelas have been occupied by the military since November 2010, after a series of attacks orchestrated by drug traffickers.
A Brazilian news team investigating an attack by a soccer fan club on a player found themselves the target of violence by the same club on Oct. 12, reported the sports newspaper UOL Esporte.
With more than 500 killings during the last 10 years, journalism is one of the most dangerous professions in the world, according to an alert from the United Nations.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression said he would ask the Honduran government permission to investigate the killings of 16 journalists in the Central American country since the June 2009 coup d'état, reported the news agency EFE.