A Costa Rican journalist avoided a libel lawsuit after retracting accusations she made against the brother of President Laura Chinchilla, Adrián Chinchilla, in an August 2012 article published in the newspaper La Nación.
After a nine-year legal process that involved several courts, the Supreme Court of Justice in Chile absolved a journalist accused of slander, according to the web portals of Cooperativa Chile and the country's judicial branch.
Northern Peru was the most dangerous part in the country for journalists in 2012, according to a report from the Press and Society Institute (or IPYS in Spanish) on attacks against the press.
Concerned about the growing threat of slander and libel lawsuits as tool to censor the press, the Free Press Foundation (FLIP in Spanish) released "Outside Justice: a manual for journalists facing slander and libel charges,".
The Brazilian media company Record, owner of the eponymous television broadcaster and the news website R7, was sentenced to pay almost $24,000 in moral damages to the Globo network host William Waack after republishing a blog post alleging Waack was an informant for the U.S. government.
Two reporters in the Dominican Republic could face three months to one year in prison for allegedly defaming the Canadian textile multinational Gildan Activewear, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French).
Contrary to international conventions on freedom of expression and access to information, defamation cases in Brazil -- a country characterized lately by a high number of judicial cases against the media -- are still resolved in criminal courts.
The courts have become the greatest hurdle to freedom of expression in Brazil, according to international groups like Inter American Press Association and Freedom House. If judicial offensives are a hurdle for large media organizations, any participation in the political sphere by small websites and blogs can be a death sentence.
Representatives from the Colombian Attorney General and Prosecutor's Offices asked the Supreme Court to overturn a journalist's conviction for libel, reported the newspaper El Espectador. According to the spokespersons, journalist Luis Agustín González's opinion column is protected by the right to freedom of expression and therefore cannot be charged politically or criminally, added the newspaper.
The Bolivian Constitutional Court ruled that insult crimes against public officials are unconstitutional, violating citizens' right to freedom of expression, reported the website Prensa Libre. While the decision was dated Sept. 20, the announcement was not made until Tuesday, Oct. 23, by Court president Ruddy Flores, according to the website.