The Venezuelan press reported 87 allegations of assaults, intimidation and censorship between January and July, 2011, according to a recent report by the human rights group Espacio Público.
Behind Mexico, tied in second place are Brazil and Honduras as the Latin American countries with the most killings of journalists this year, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), reported Folha de S. Paulo.
Julio San Francisco, part of the Cuban Movement for Independent Journalism, narrates the creation and disappearance of the first private and independent news agency on the island, Havana Press, in a new digital book.
The editor of the Bolivian newspaper "Sol de Pando," Wilson García Mérida, announced he is filing a lawsuit against the governor of Pando, in the northeast of Bolivia, for confiscating 2,000 copies of the newspaper.
On Thursday, July 28 the Bolivian Senate approved the controversial Telecommunications, Information Technology and Communication Law. The law gives the state majority control of electronic media, according to local press.
On July 20, a group of journalists in the northeast Brazilian state of Paraíba sent an open letter to the state’s Brazilian Bar Association section (OAB/PB) and the Paraiba Press Association, in which they allege persecution and freedom of expression violations by regional authorities, Paraíba 1 reports.
Every day dozens of celebrities worldwide are hounded by the press for scoops on things like alleged plastic surgeries, pregnancies, or their romantic lives. A member of Chile’s House of Deputies, inspired by recent press harassment faced by a former beauty queen, believes that journalists have gone too far and that their behavior needs to be reined in.
A judge sentenced three directors and a columnist at El Universo daily to three years each in prison and $40 million in fines for defaming President Rafael Correa in a February 6 editorial, CNN reports.
A São Paulo judge has ordered Brazilian ISPs to block access to journalist Paulo Cezar Prado’s “Blog do Paulinho” website, Mônica Bergamo reports for Folha de S. Paulo. The site is known for criticizing and making allegations against executives at the Brazilian Soccer Confederation (CBF) and major domestic clubs.
Brazil’s federal police are investigating TV Tem, a Rede Globo affiliate in the city of São José do Rio Preto, for allegedly broadcasting confidential police recordings, Folha de S. Paulo reports.
The Supreme Court of Peru sent a bill to Congress that would imprison those who distribute recordings of private conversations obtained by illegal telephone wiretaps, Perú21 reports. Freedom of expression groups said the bill was an attempt to restrict press freedom and weaken the tools used to watchdog the authorities, Diario Ya explains.
After a series of firings and journalists quitting because of complaints of censorship during the recent presidential campaign in Peru, the sudden cancellation of one of the most watched and credible journalistic programs in Peru has prompted a debate about freedom of expression and the impact of media monopolies on citizens' right to information.