Covering protests, photographing food lines or taking video inside a hospital can be risky for journalists working in Venezuela today. Various reporters and photojournalists working in the country have been subjected to temporary and prolonged detentions in the process of carrying out their jobs in recent months.
In an editorial published on Oct. 16, the team at Cuban journalism site Periodismo de Barrio offered details about their detentions on Oct. 11 and 12 in the eastern province of Guantánamo where they had gone to cover the effects of Hurricane Matthew. They also addressed some criticisms of their work.
At least 10 Cuban journalists were detained while covering the effects of Hurricane Matthew in the town of Baracoa in the eastern province of Guantámo on the morning of Oct. 13, according to news site Cubanet.
The detentions of at least two community journalists and attacks on at least two other reporters covering evictions from a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have generated criticisms against the Military Police in this city who are accused of violating freedom of expression.
A Venezuelan journalist whose family has reported him as missing on two different occasions, has resurfaced in a detention center in Guárico state. Braulio Jatar Alonso was first reported missing by his family on Sept. 3.
The Sept. 3 detention of lawyer and journalist Braulio Jatar Alonso on Margarita Island in the state of Nueva Esparta in Venezuela has caused indignation and rejection. Family members, as well as local and international human rights organizations have labeled the case a “total abuse” and an attack of press freedom in the country.
A day of demonstrations in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas ended with complaints of restrictions on freedoms of the press and of expression, including attacks and temporary detentions of some media workers, as well as international journalists being banned from entering the country.
A second person accused of participating in the murder of journalist João Miranda do Carmo was arrested on the night of Aug. 26, about a month after the crime, according to news site G1.
Arguing that journalists were making recordings in a “presidential corridor,” members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB for its acronym in Spanish) in Venezuela detained journalists Andreina Flores and Jorge Luis Pérez Valery, according to the Press and Society Institute of Venezuela (IPYS).
Lawmakers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines passed the 2016 Cybercrime Act on Aug. 12 that provides up to two years in prison for online defamation.
Mexican authorities arrested a second man accused of being the alleged mastermind and material author of the murder of journalist Anabel Flores Salazar that occurred in February of this year, newspaper El Universal reported.
On July 27, authorities arrested a man suspected of participating in the murder of Brazilian journalist João Miranda do Carmo, according to news site G1.