Before 2005, crime news dominated the regional media in Chile, according to Paula Rojo, founder of the network of regional newspapers Mi Voz. That year, Rojo and her partner Jorge Domínguez Larraín launched an effort to recruit citizens, representatives from diverse political backgrounds and the social sector to become citizen reporters for their new newspaper.
Mexico and Cuba were the worst places for journalists in the Americas, tensions between the government and privately-owned media continued to escalate in Ecuador and Argentina, and Canada lost its position as press freedom leader in the continent.
In a request for protection, Chilean journalist Mauricio Weibel said he was not the only one facing intimidation for his investigations into the country’s military dictatorship.
Unknown men broke into the home of Chilean journalist Mauricio Weibel on Dec. 15 and stole his laptop, in which he kept his investigation on the armed forces' secret services during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, informed Reporters Without Borders.
Chilean police detained a journalist for over three hours on Saturday, Nov. 24, on an old warrant, reported the website Diario Voz Populi. Pedro Cayuqueo, a Mapuche indigenous journalist, was detained by police in the community of Teodoro Schmidt.
The Supreme Court of Chile authorized a request for the United States to extradite an ex-military officer accused of killing two U.S. journalists in the South American country, reported the AFP news agency. Both reporters died in 1973, during the early days of the Pinochet dictatorship.
During a shareholders' meeting for the Chilean newspaper La Nación, government representatives, who control 69 percent of the company's shares, voted to close and liquidate the storied newspaper on Monday, Sept. 24.
In a statement released on Friday, Sept. 7, the Chilean state newspaper's union announced the government's decision to close La Nación, according to the AFP.
Chilean national police, known as Carabineros, detained an independent journalist covering the national student and professor march in the capital, Santiago, reported the Venezuelan News Agency.
The Chilean government denied a passport to a journalist for the second time because of "opinion crimes" committed 61 years ago, during the administration of President Gabriel González Videla, reported the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP in Spanish).