The Mexican Senate approved the decriminalization of slander and libel, reported the newspaper El Universal on Nov. 29.
Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed regulating the media and modifying the Press Law leading up to the Plurinational Summit, which will take place in December in the city of Cochabamba, reported the radio station FM Bolivia.
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.