The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) has announced the launch of an annual series of prizes for investigative journalism in Argentina amidst what the organization has described as an “unbearable climate of threats, persecutions, and poor working conditions weighing on the profession.”
In a hearing before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), a group of Venezuelan journalists, union members, and local NGOs have firmly denounced ongoing censorship of the press in Venezuela.
Argentine police have raided radio station and news website La Brújula 24 and confiscated journalistic materials. According to reports from the city of Bahía Blanca, in the Buenos Aires province, local police arrived at the news office with a court order signed by Federal Judge Santiago Ulipano Martinez.
A Honduran appellate court has reinstated a 16-month journalism ban on news anchor Julio Ernesto Alvarado, the latest in a rally of court decisions and appeals since Alvarado was charged with criminal defamation for segments, alleging corrupt behavior of a university dean, aired on his TV program “Mi Nación” (My Nation) in 2006.
The Organization of American States' special rapporteur for Freedom of Expression released a statement in which it “express[ed] its deepest concern for the deterioration of the right to freedom of expression in Venezuela.”
As if the dangers of covering crime in one of the riskiest regions of the world for journalists weren’t enough, reporters in Northern Mexico now face new obstacles allegedly created by the authorities who were supposed to protect them.
On World Press Freedom Day, celebrated last May 3, Ecuadorian media outlets abstained from republishing an illustration created by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) that criticizes President Rafael Correa for his government's pressures against the press.
Ecuadorian press freedom NGO Fundamedios sent a letter to Twitter criticizing the company for having complied to remove content depicting or referring to President Rafael Correa that the organization described as public information. Twitter removed the content from its service after receiving several complaints in the last few months from Spanish company Ares Rights, which the Ecuadorian government is currently employing to track alleged copyright infringements online.
Press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned last week that a recent statement by Haiti’s National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL) could lead to self-censorship in the country.
More than half of journalists in Bolivia said they have suffered censorship and/or self-censorship during their professional lives, according to a presentation by researcher Virginie Poyetton on April 16 on her new book “Journalistic censorship and self-censorship in Bolivia. A perspective from within the profession itself,” reported newspaper Opinión.
Three reporters resigned from Venezuelan TV station Globovisión on Mar. 28 in protest against the channel’s alleged censorship practices and the dismissal of their team of cameramen and technicians.
For Marianela Balbi, executive director of the Institute of Press and Society (IPYS) in Venezuela, the government of President Nicolás Maduro is censoring critical media outlets -- with tactics like the blockage of live broadcasts of the protests -- in an effort to prevent more people from joining the manifestations.