After several years of efforts to create a common space for discussion and cooperation and to improve tools to carry out high quality journalism—such as the use of databases and public sources of information—the Chilean Journalists' Network was officially launched on May 3 during an event called Sin Mordaza, which roughly translates to Without Censorship.
No interviews from public officials or access to press conferences, a duopoly of TV stations and most radio stations, and a law of access to public information that is not fulfilled: this is what fills the days of independent journalists in Nicaragua.
Cuban independent journalist and activist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca was jailed and held incommunicado for five days after being detained just hours before U.S. President Barack Obama’s arrival to Cuba on March 20. The journalist went to the church of Santa Rita, as usual, to cover the march led every Sunday in Havana by the Ladies in White organization, according to Martí Noticias.
In a report about human rights in Guatemala published on March 14, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern about attacks in recent months against journalists whose investigative work was related to corruption, public administration and human rights violations.
Méxicoleaks, a digital platform that accepts anonymous information from the public, has made the shortlist for the 2016 Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards in the category of digital activism.
Ecuador’s controversial agency that controls the content of media outlets (Supercom, as it is known for its acronym in Spanish) has again admitted a complaint against newspaper El Universo for a cartoon created by Xavier Bonilla, known as Bonil.
Covering parliamentary elections occuring on Dec. 6 in Venezuela has become a major challenge for national and international journalists.
Unsolved murders, violent government repression, oppressive anti-media laws and the ever-increasing ties between big money and big government were among the issues of debate at the 71st General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA).
In imminent danger of being shut down by the Ecuadoran government, one of the only voices monitoring freedom of expression and the state of journalism in that country vows to keep working.
Ecuadoran journalist Martín Pallares said that for some time, executives at the daily newspaper El Comercio had been nervous about comments he made through his personal Twitter account. Yet, he never thought the situation would end with his dismissal. That day came on August 17.
The free flow of information regarding an active volcano currently erupting about 30 miles south of Quito, Ecuador may be threatened now that President Rafael Correa has declared a state of emergency in that country.
The dismissal of journalist Carmen Aristegui from MVS radio group in Mexico on March 15 fueled the existing national controversy caused by the recent dismissal of two reporters who were part of her team. Many are labeling the firing of these communicators as an attack on freedom of expression.