A reporter from the Brazilian newspaper Jornal da Tarde, in São Paulo, will run for city council this year 2012 elections in order to cover the campaign from a different perspective, reported the newspaper's website.
On Monday, Aug. 20, the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo announced the launch of the website FolhaSPDados, an online resource for the up-coming mayoral elections in the city of São Paulo. The website will feature interactive maps and infographics to illustrate and accompany the newspaper's coverage of the election's main themes.
The Venezuelan NGO Espacio Público launched on Tuesday, Aug. 14, a campaign for the end of President Hugo Chavez's forced TV and radio broadcasts, reported El Universal.
In the state of Mato Grosso, in central-western Brazil, two Brazilian television stations were fined by the electoral court for broadcasting unfavorable reports about the administration of Mayor Juarez Costa of the city of Sinop, reported the newspaper Diário de Cuiabá on Thursday, Aug. 9.
On Thursday, August 2, the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE in Spanish) said that it would investigate two TV stations and two newspapers in the country for allegedly violating the rules of the presidential elections, which will take place in October 2012, reported the newspaper El Nacional.
Journalistic organizations in Mexico say that journalists are working in an especially hostile environment as the Sunday, July 1 presidential, congressional, and mayoral elections approach.
With the Venezuelan presidential elections just three months away, attacks against the press and journalists will most likely increase, warned the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). WAN-IFRA visited Venezuela from June 4-6 and found that independent media were polarized and weakened.
After the Mexican TV station Televisa requested an apology from the British newspaper The Guardian for reporting about alleged documents that proved that political candidates paid for favorable coverage on its TV news programs, the newspaper responded with new evidence.
The British newspaper The Guardian said it had documents that proved that a Mexican presidential candidate bought favorable coverage on the most important TV station in the country, Televisa.
Political columnist Katia D’Artigues of the Mexican newspaper El Universal said that she and her son received many death threats via Twitter warning her to stop criticizing presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI in Spanish), reported the Program for Freedom of Expression of the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET in Spanish).