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).
On Sunday, May 27, the Brazilian newspaper Estado de São Paulo launched an exclusive app for tablets that focuses on municipal electoral coverage that will take in October, reported the Portal Imprensa. The app gathers news, videos, and analyses about the elections in the main Brazilian cities.
Succumbing to pressure from the Mexican student movement “Yo Soy 132,”, or "I am 132," the president of the TV station Televisa, Emilio Azcárraga, agreed to nationally broadcast the next presidential debate, reported Noticias MVS. Then, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, president of the second largest TV station, TV Azteca, announced that it, too, would nationally televise the debate, according to El Informador.
Heading towards the Mexican presidential elections on July 1, voting surveys are done on Facebook; candidates have cell phone 'apps' and YouTube channels, and citizen journalists are the protagonists of new digital media that have refreshed electoral coverage to meet the demands of a younger and more informed public. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas interviewed the directors of Mexican digital and independent media about this tendency.
The Mexican radio station Grupo Fórmula sent a letter to the owner of the newspaper Reforma to clarify the sponsorship payments made by presidential candidate and former governor of the state of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, reported the same radio station.
How much does a journalist in Mexico cost? According to an article in the Mexican newspaper Reforma, the answer could be hundreds of thousands of dollars if it's for Joaquín López Dóriga, news host for Televisa, the main Mexican broadcaster.
One week after a car bomb exploded in front of the Mexican newspaper Expreso's offices -- and authorities have yet to identify anyone responsible for the attack -- another publication from the same publishing company also has come under attack, this time from the local Electoral Board, which has fined the magazine Conexión Total about $12,500, reported the newspaper Hoy Tamaulipas on Thursday, March 29. Both Expreso and Conexión Total are located in the state of Tamaulipas. The fine was levied against the publication for running advertisements for a federal congressional candidate before the start of the official c