A court in Ecuador decided to dismiss a libel case brought by President Rafael Correa against two journalists who wrote the book "Big Brother," which accuses the president of nepotism, reported the newspaper El Comercio on Thursday, April 19.
During the first trimester of this year, a total of 53 attacks on "news media, journalists, and citizens exercising their rights to freedom of expression” were recorded in Ecuador.
Brazilian journalist José Marcondes reported an alleged court ploy in Cuiabá, capital of the state of Mato Grosso, that accuses him of rebelliousness and sentences him to pay a fee for moral damages in two cases filed against him by senator Pedro Taques.
A Haitian senator is urging President Michel Martelly to sue a Dominican Republic journalist who reported on alleged presidential corruption in Haiti, according to the newspaper Diario Horizonte.
In Bolivia, the ex-head of the Public Works, Services, and Housing deparment Walter Delgadillo, threatened to sue a columnist for libel and defamation if the journalist does not apologize, reported the newspaper Opinión.
The Attorney General of the Brazilian state of Goias announced that he is opening an investigation into the magazine Carta Capital because the Sunday, April 1, edition was deemed offensive to the state and Governor Marconi Perillo.
Despite Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa's pardon, a court decided to move forward with the ruling against two Ecuadoran journalists accused of defamation and reject the presidential pardon.
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.