The announcement that the Chilean government will begin to monitor comments on social networks has prompted controversy among Facebook and Twitter users and sparked a debate about Internet privacy.
The president of Chile's central union CUT, Arturo Martínez, announced the filing of a libel complaint against the digital newspaper El Mostrador, because of an article that said the union president had spent about $1,300 on an extravagant lunch, reported Emol.
Photographer Marcela Rodíguez, a correspondent for Mapuexpress, was arrested while covering a May 13 protest in the southern Chilean city of Temuco against the construction of new hydroelectric dams, Periodistas en Español reports.
Six months after Chilean community radio station Radio Tentación in November 2010 was closed and its equipment seized, the station's members find themselves on trial for broadcasting without authorization, reported the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, or AMARC.
Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, ordered the country's media to show more patriotism and support the government's strategy of bringing Chile before an international court in order to obtain access to the Pacific Ocean, according to El Deber.
The Supreme Court found six former Navy officers guilty for their involvement in the abduction and execution of journalist Jaime Aldoney on Sept. 12, 1973, the day following the Chilean coup that installed a 17-year military dictatorship, AFP reports.
On May 3, media workers all over Latin American used World Press Freedom Day to denounce violence against reporters and media outlets and to demand protection, as new reports showed that the region has become one the most dangerous in the world to practice journalism. Press Freedom Day was also marred by the news that two journalists, one in Brazil and another in Peru, were shot to death in separate incidents.
A Chilean journalist was arrested by police while covering a protest against the increase in public transportation fares in the capital city of Santiago, according to Terra.
The deaths of 81 inmates in a prison fire in Santiago this month have brought angry response by users of social networks, who criticized prison conditions in Chile and accused the media of insensitive coverage, Global Voices Online reports.
The tragedy that trapped 33 miners and their emotional rescue – followed by nearly one billion people worldwide– continues to draw coverage, even as the miners and their families stay away from the press, Reuters reports.