The Mexican Supreme Court acquitted five journalists accused of defaming a judge after reporting about construction irregularities at the new headquarters of the Federal Court of Fiscal and Administrative Justice, reported the magazine Zócalo.
The Supreme Court of San Martín in Tarapoto, Peru, voided a journalist's prison sentence for defamation against a local mayor, reported the news site Crónica Viva.
A Bolivian journalist was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for defamation stemming from a article that linked a lawyer linked with corruption, reported the newspaper La Razón. This is the first criminal sentence against a reporter in Bolivia since 1997, added the news agency EFE.
The Embassy of Sweden in Guatemala accused two journalists of defamation for stating on television that the Swedish government finances terrorist groups in this Central American country, reported the Guatemalan Center of News Reports (CERIGUA in Spanish). One of the accused journalists, Sylvia Gereda, Gereda denied the accusation on her blog and said she has the documents to back up the statements made about Sweden.
An ex-attorney general sued a Mexican journalist and publishing house for libel over passages published in the book "Los Señores del Narco," or "The Drug Lords," reported Radio Formula.
The regional court in Cundinamarca, Colombia, upheld a criminal libel sentence against a Colombian journalist on Wednesday, Feb. 29, for publishing an editorial criticizing former governor and senator María Leonor Serrano de Camargo, reported the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP in Spanish).
The journalist Claudia Julieta Duque filed a complaint against the Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe for libel and defamation for associating her with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), reported Caracol Radio.
A group of Ecuadorian government supporters, known as correistas.com, has launched a campaign against all news publications that have recently criticized Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa for his multiple attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression, explained the organization Fundamedios.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has called on the Ecuadorian government to suspend the controversial defamation sentence against the newspaper El Universo, its owners, and the former opinion page editor Emilio Palacio, who are facing three years in prison and $40 million in fines, according to BBC Mundo.
The president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, offered asylum to Ecuadoran journalist Carlos Pérez Barriga, one of the owners of the El Universo newspaper who, along with his two brothers, was just sentenced to three years in prison and $40 million in fines for defaming Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, according to the non-governmental organization Fundamedios. Martinelli made the announcement via his Twitter account on Thursday, Feb. 16.