On Wednesday, Dec. 7, a Peruvian journalist was sentenced to two years in prison for defamation, reported the newspaper La Primera.
The Mexican Senate approved the decriminalization of slander and libel, reported the newspaper El Universal on Nov. 29.
Human Rights Watch asked the Ecuadorian government to repeal all insult and defamation laws against public officials, the New York-based human rights organization announced.
Brazilian journalist Marcos Antônio Moreira, owner of Super Site Good, was ordered to pay damages of over $12,000 (BR$ 21,800) to the ex-inspector general of justice for the state of Mato Grosso, Orlando Perri, reported MidiaNews.
On Thursday, Sept. 22, two Peruvian journalists accused of defamation were sentenced to two years in prison, although the sentences were suspended, reported the Press and Society Institute.
President of the Block of Venezuelan Press, an association of Venezuelan newspaper editors, believes covering the 2012 presidential election will be especially difficult for an independent press already under attack.
With two votes in favor and one abstention, a court in Ecuador upheld a sentence of three years in prison and $40 million in damages against an ex-columnist and three directors of the newspaper El Universo.
A court in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sentenced journalist Paulo Henrique Amorim, host of the show Domingo Espetacular on Rede Record, to pay damages amounting to more than $54,000 to the lawyer Nélio Machado.
The newspaper O Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul was ordered by the Brazilian state's court to pay damages to Luiz Carlos Bonelli, ex-superintendent of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform.
César Ferreira, Paraguayan journalist for Radio Yuty in the southern city of Caazapá, faces a new defamation charge after the local Court of Appeals ruled in his favor on the previous charge, reported the news site Cuarto Poder.
A Peruvian lawyer issued a writ of habeas corpus to free the journalist Paul Garay Ramírez. Garay was sentenced to three years in prison for alleged defamation, reported the newspaper Expreso.
On Sept. 1, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Andean Group of Information Freedoms, and Fundamedios released a report on the state of freedom of expression in Ecuador titled, "Confrontation, Repression in Correa's Ecuador."