It appears that the killing of reporter David Meza Montesinos will not go unpunished. After weeks of investigations, the attorney general has issued an arrest order against four people accused of killing the TV and radio reporter last March, Radio América and El Heraldo report.
Maurício Machado, journalist and owner of Jornal Atualidades in Marília, São Paulo, was granted pretrial release after spending six days in prison under charges of extorting a federal deputy, O Estado de S. Paulo reports. Prosecutors say the journalist planned to publish false stories about the deputy to force him to buy advertising at the paper.
An appeals court ruled that blogger Dania García would have to pay a $14 fine instead of serving a 20 month prison term for a family dispute, The Associated Press reports.
State security agents arrested independent journalist Yosvani Anzardo Hernández for several hours in San Germán, Holguín, and threatened to jail him for his political activism, Cubanet and Radio Martí report.
Oscar Sánchez Madan was released from prison this week after serving a three-year term for “social dangerousness,” a vague charge he received after covering a local corruption scandal. He tells Radio Martí that he wants to keep writing about current affairs on the island, including Havana’s human rights violations, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.
Enrique Lazo Flores, editor of the newspaper La Región, in the southern city of Ilo, Moquegua, was accused of attacking the honor of a regional politician Renato Ascuña Chavera, the Crónica Viva site reports. The prison sentence was suspended, but organizations denounced it as a serious threat to freedom of expression.
Members of the National Revolutionary Police arrested Juan Carlos Reyes Ocaña near his home in Holguín on charges of insult, disobedience, and illicit economic activity, EFE and Reporters without Borders (RSF) report. Reyes works for the Holguín Press news agency.
Cuba is the only country in Latin America included in the list of 10 nations with the highest levels of censorship in the world, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
After five months of imprisonment, Ana Belén Tovar, editor of the media outlet Entorno Inteligente and operations manager of Venmedios, was released after being detained since last November during a raid on the facilities.
The house of Venezuelan journalist Darvinson Rojas was raided and he was detained by agents of the Special Action Forces (FAES) of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) on March 21, in Caracas.