“We are going to make a confession: in Colombia, journalists publish much less than what they know.” Thus begins the promotion video of the newly-formed network of journalists called The League Against Silence, which, through its first activity, is seeking resources to cover the most self-censored issues in the country.
The 2016 election season in Brazil put Ctrl+X, a platform created to monitor lawsuits that demand the removal of content from the internet, to the test. The site found that “electoral lawsuits,” one of the subsets of legal proceedings tracked by the site, increased 33 percent in recent municipal elections in 2016 when compared to the elections of 2012. In many of these cases, politicians and parties go through designated electoral courts to sue journalists and get information removed from the internet.
The detentions of at least two community journalists and attacks on at least two other reporters covering evictions from a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have generated criticisms against the Military Police in this city who are accused of violating freedom of expression.
Researcher Olga Khrustaleva is looking for journalists and activists across Latin America to share their experiences with Internet censorship. Her goal: to map types of Internet censorship in the region and to find out how journalists and activists are changing their behavior as a result.
There is discord between the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales and a large sector of the media, as well as organizations defending freedom of expression, said Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), during a visit to La Paz, according to Página Siete.
The main objective of the creation of the Law on Personal Data Protection– enacted on July 11, 2013 and effective in all of its rules since May 8, 2015 – was to protect the personal data of those who feel vulnerable by its publication, like its comercial use by private companies, up to achieving the removal of news related to information in question from the internet.
The news team of the Sunday newscast Panorama was criminally charged by the Peruvian Defense Minister Jakke Valakivi after publishing a official secret documents that allegedly show evidence of embezzlement of resources of the Army Intelligence Service. The journalists could face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison for the crime of treason.
Update (July 1, 2016): The legal processes and hearings against the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo were temporarily suspended on June 30 by a judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Rosa Weber, according to O Estado de S. Paulo.
Update (June 16, 2016): Journalist Marcelo Auler was permitted to republish eight of the ten articles censored on his blog. Judge Vanessa Bassani threw out the lawsuit for compensation filed by investigator Maurício Moscardi Grillo after finding an error in the original petition: the home address of the investigator is located in a neighborhood served by another court, which means the original judge should not have heard the case.
Journalistic associations and professionals in Argentina warn that a bill pending in the legislature threatens freedom of expression in the country. If the initiative is passed, reporters who disclose names and information of people who could be involved in crimes of money laundering and tax evasion could be arrested.
In one of the most violent events for the press this year in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, at least 19 media workers were attacked while covering protests taking place on June 2, according to the human rights advocacy organization Espacio Público.
Professionals of Brazil Communications Company (EBC) that manage the Brazilian public TV channels and radio participated in a ceremony on May 20th to denounce the alleged censorship that has being happening since the change of CEO of the company, defined by interim president Michel Temer. The information is on the website Rede Brasil Atual.