During election season, political coverage takes on a central role in society and journalists come under pressure to improve news gathering.
Including alternative voices, differentiating between government and campaign acts, and in-depth reports on the trajectory of the candidates were some of the recommendations compiled by a group of Venezuelan journalists.
On Sept. 18, Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) addressed the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights about the current situation in Venezuela in the last weeks before the Oct. 7 presidential elections.
Hostilities against journalists and bloggers in Brazil leading up to municipal elections do not stop at censorship; media professionals also face a rise in attacks by candidate supporters.
Conflicting versions of a violent confrontation between supporters of President Hugo Chávez and opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles demonstrate the polarization of the press in Venezuela less than a month from the elections.
In the morning of Thursday, Sept. 13, two men broke into the offices of Rádio Farol in the northeastern city of União dos Palmares in Brazil and planted a bomb that exploded, destroying the broadcaster's studio, reported the newspaper Tribuna Hoje.
A report from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) warned that Mexico's press is rapidly losing its freedom with entire regions experiencing an "information blackout".
Contributors to the Mexican blog "El 5antuario" (The Sanctuary) released a YouTube video and an online statement reporting that the blog's creator, Ruy Salgado or "El 5anto," had disappeared.
A photographer was attacked at a demonstration in Venezuela as a confrontation broke out between pro-government and opposition supporters on Wednesday, Sept. 12, reported the website Notícias 24.
Residents of Itaboraí, Rio de Janeiro went without the newspaper O Dia on Sept. 4 and 5, after copies of the publication bearing accusations against mayoral candidate Altineu Côrtes disappeared from newsstands, reported the website Brasil 247.