Two reporters were attacked by a Peruvian presidential candidate's bodyguards, while two other journalists reported threats and censorship as the tension continues to grow in the buildup to the second round of voting in the presidential election, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports via IFEX.
César Lévano, director of the Peruvian newspaper La Primera, and Arturo Belaúnde, president of the same newspaper, received funeral wreaths in the midst of a tense presidential election campaign, according to La República.
A group of nearly 100 individuals attacked a car driven by journalist Jaime Althaus, who works for the El Comercio-owned Canal N TV, Peru.com reports.
The votes still are being counted, but Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has claimed victory in a nationwide vote on 10 issues ranging from a bullfighting ban to the creation of a panel to regulate media content, CNN reports. Both the government and the opposition have suggested that there were irregularities during in the Saturday, May 7, vote, local media outlets report.
Unlike Mexico, where dozens of journalists have been killed in the last decade, Venezuelan journalists don’t work under a climate of constant threats to their lives, however they do face “systematic” pressure from the government, whose supporters are responsible for 28% of the attacks against the press, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports.
Barely more than a week after two Peruvian TV journalists claimed El Comercio fired them for failing to toe the party line, three reporters for Radio Líder resigned after reportedly being told to not criticize presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, Terra reports.
Two journalists who were fired April 20 by the TV station Canal N, owned by El Comercio, say they were punished for not supporting presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, Los Andes reports.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal initiated by a group of 15 journalists and academics against a constitutional provision that bans private individuals from buying electoral ad space on radio and TV, Milenio reports.
Candidates for Peru’s April 10 election have signed an agreement to guarantee access to public information, promote administrative transparency, and protect freedom of information if they are elected, the RPP radio network reports.
Cameraman Arturo Sandoval, from Canal 2 Frecuencia Latina, was taken to the hospital after being hit by the car driving Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala to a debate in Lima, La República reports.
Carlos Gaguim, the former governor of Tocantins state, and two federal representatives have brought a case to the Supreme Electoral Court against current the current governor and vice-governor, Siqueira Campos and João Oliveira, respectively. Gaguim, who was defeated in the October elections, has charged the current administration with vote-buying and media, political, and economic abuse, Terra reports.
Héctor Cordero, a correspondent for Guatevisión TV in the Guatemalan department (state) of Quiché, answered questions for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas about the difficulties of being a journalist and the importance of adhering to journalistic ethics during an election season. For example, members of the Patriotic Party's communications team attacked two Channel 2 journalists at a press conference in January. Cordero, also a member of GuateDigital, a network of journalists from the interior of the country, last year received death threats after reporting on nepotism involving a local congre