A journalist sentenced to prison, accused of slanderous propaganda and offending the honor of Osmar Calenge, a 2004 candidate for the City Council of Lagoa Santa, in Minas Gerais, entered a request for habeas corpus before the Federal Supreme Court, asking for the sentence to be dismissed, according to the court.
The vice president of Guatemala, Rafael Espada, tried to sue Marta Yolanda Díaz-Durán for libel, insult and defamation after she wrote a column published a year ago in the newspaper Siglo Veintiuno, but the Constitutional Court this week dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the journalist only expressed her opinion in the media, reported Cerigua.
An impending ruling from the Salvadoran Supreme Court has created uncertainty and concern among journalists in the country, and sparked a debate on the limits of freedom of expression, reported El Salvador and El Faro.
A São Paulo court suspended payments towards a more than $335,000 defamation judgment against Debate, a daily based in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo in São Paulo state, O Estado de S. Paulo reports. According to Estado, the court ruled that the debt must still be paid, but the newspaper can still appeal to the Superior Court of Justice, the highest court for non-constitutional questions. Judge José Magdalena sued the newspaper in 1995 for an article that claimed his house and telephone were paid for by the local mayor’s office. The paper lost the case, and its owner, journalist Sérgio Fleury Moraes, said the fine wou
After spending 19 days behind bars for defamation charges stemming from an article he wrote more than a decade ago, 71-year-old Panamanian journalist Carlos Nuñez was freed from jail Wednesday, July 14, reported EFE and La Estrella.
In a public act of reparation this week, Argentina has recognized its responsibility for the wrongful prison sentence of journalist Eduardo Kimel, who died in February, reported Página 12.
Veteran journalist Carlos Jerónimo Nuñez López was arrested Saturday, June 26, for a 12-year-old libel suit, according to Hora Cero in Panama.
After already serving a six-month sentence, Ecuadorian journalist Fredi Aponte again is in court, this time for fraudulent bankruptcy, according to El Universo.
Segundo Carrascal Carrasco, editor of the weekly Nor Oriente, was released by the Supreme Court of Lima, after spending more than five months in prison for defamation, Crónica Viva reports.
The debate over criminalization of opinions and information was swept under the rug again in Ecuador. The lawsuit against the opinion editor of El Universo newspaper, Emilio Palacio, ended in surprise after a high government official withdrew the libel charges against him, El Comercio and EFE report.
A computer technician has confessed to sending false emails to 180 court judges in the state of Rio de Janeiro in the name of journalist Chico Otavio of O Globo newspaper. The messages are said to have been sent at the request of a former high-ranking judge, Roberto Wider, who resigned from his job after a series of news reports co-authored by Otavio last year accused Wider of involvement in fraudulent sentencing deals, O Globo explains.
A draft law that establishes internet rights and responsibilities for citizens, business, and the government has received hundreds of responses since the online comment period began last month. Responding to critics, the Justice Ministry has eliminated language that some claimed would effectively force web site hosts—including media outlets—to remove content immediately after private, non-judicial complaints.