Award-winning journalist Carmen Aristegui accused the Mexican government of pushing for her dismissal after she asked President Felipe Calderón to clarify whether he had alcohol problems, BBC reports.
The Venezuelan government said the private sector continues to control media in the country, El Universal reports, in spite of its efforts to restrict print, broadcast, and digital content.
Mexican media personality Carmen Aristegui, the award-winning host of one of the highest-rated radio programs in the county, was fired by MVS Radio after discussing allegations that President Felipe Calderón is an alcoholic, EFE reports.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has asked the Mexican Supreme Court to respect the right of citizens to express their electoral opinions through the media.
Nicaragua imposed a series of restrictions on paper imports by El Nuevo Dario, a newspaper that recently reported that the authorities had threatened its journalists after publishing allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Finance.
The indigenous leader and former director of the radio station La Voz de Arutam, José Acacho, was arrested and accused of sabotage and terrorism for allegedly using the station to incite anti-government protests, Fundamedios reports via IFEX. During the 2009 demonstrations, one teacher was killed and 40 soldiers were wounded.
Argentine journalist Rafael Morán, who spent four and a half months in prison during the dictatorship (1976-1983) for writing about a disappeared dissident, testified in Mendoza about crimes against humanity by the military, Clarin reports.
Tension between the private media and the government of President Hugo Chávez is nothing new. However, U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks (cable 10CARACAS219) reveal that the conflict is now such that the U.S. ambassador in Caracas believes Chávez is “is close to his goal of 'domesticating' or eliminating the remaining free and independent media in Venezuela,” El País reports.
A new study on the state of press freedom in Mexico says the growing violence in Mexico is so brutal, it has made problems like censorship, lack of training, and regulation pale in comparison.
Residents of Posadas, capital of Misiones province (NE Argentina), demonstrated over the weekend in favor of freedom of expression, responding to last week’s closure of Channel 4. Ten military police officers went to the station Jan. 12 to enforce a court order to suspend its broadcasts. (See other stories here, in Spanish.)
Venezuela’s telecommunications agency, Conatel, ordered Televén to immediately stop broadcasting the Colombian telenovela soap opera “Chepe Fortuna” for promoting “political and racial intolerance, as well as xenophobia and crime advocacy,” Reuters and BBC Mundo report.
In a Jan. 9 column, the ombudsman for the Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo said the paper’s case against the Falha de S. Paulo (São Paulo Failure) parody blog was more harmful than the blog itself.