Enrique Hernández Padrón and Graciela Castañón Aguilar, former reporters for El Portal in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosí, say they were fired under pressure from the state government to keep from losing advertising money, Mexico’s National Social Communication Center (CENCOS) reports.
The newest edition of ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America, is dedicated to journalism in the Americas, with stories by renowned journalists focusing on such topics as the dangers of reporting in Mexico, the possibilities of incorporating new digital technologies, censorship and threats to freedom of expression.
In an article titled “the end of censorship,” Caras magazine announced that it was authorized by a São Paulo state court to publish a letter sent by actress Cibele Dorsa, who died after allegedly committing suicide March 26.
After the recent controversial firing of journalist Aguirre Peixoto, the newspaper A Tarde is embroiled in another controversy over one of its employees. Reporter Emanuella Sombra resigned, Monday, March 28, after disagreeing with edits that were made to her interview with the singer Ivete Sangalo, reported the news site Grande Bahia. According to the journalist, an important part of her article, where the singer spoke about a crisis in the company and a lawsuit involving an ex-employee, was edited out against her will.
In an article published on its website, the Brazilian magazine Caras said its was being censored for covering the death of the Brazilian actress and writer Cibele Dorsa. A court order forced the magazine to unpublish excerpts of the suicide note that the actress had sent to the magazine before her death.
Nearly 50 Mexican media organizations signed an agreement Thursday about coverage of drug trafficking. The pact seeks to prevent excessive publication of violent images and stories and to guarantee the safety of journalists who expose themselves daily to the growing violence of organized crime, which has left more than 34,000 deaths in four years. See stories in English by the Associated Press and Reuters.
Monday, primetime in Cuba. While state television broadcast a new episode of a series of allegations against the opposition, "The Reasons of Cuba,” this time about independent bloggers, the movement's leader, Yoani Sánchez, broadcast her own talk program with dissident journalists, in which she defended the right to access and use Internet on the island, Radio Martí reports.
Former President Jimmy Carter, met in Havana Wednesday, March 30, with independent bloggers and other Cuban dissidents during the third and final day of his visit to the island in an effort to help to improve decades of tense relations between the United States and Cuba, the BBC and Reuters report.
In recognition of the World Day against Cyber-Censorship, held March 12, the organization Reporters Without Borders gave out its annual award for online media and released a new list of countries named as "Internet enemies," including Cuba, reported the Associated Press and Telegraf.
A panel of three Mexican judges lifted a ban on the film "Presumed Guilty," a widely popular yet controversial documentary that exposes faults in the country’s justice system, the BBC said last week.
The open tension between Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and the press intensified in recent days amid accusations of corruption and conspiracy among the media and allegations of government censorship and freedom of expression violations, reported the local press.
Journalists working for big media companies and their independent blogger colleagues are facing the same problem: the risk of lawsuits for their work.