Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed regulating the media and modifying the Press Law leading up to the Plurinational Summit, which will take place in December in the city of Cochabamba, reported the radio station FM Bolivia.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo met with media leaders Friday, Nov. 25, to address journalist protection and threats against the press, reported the newspaper La Tribuna.
The editor-in-chief of the Venezuelan weekly newspaper Sexto Poder, Leocenis García, was released from prison and taken to a private clinic the night of Nov. 21 after spending 12 days on a hunger strike in prison to protest the charges against him, reported El Nacional.
On Nov. 17, electronic equipment and office supplies were stolen from the Venezuelan freedom of expression NGO, Public Space, in the capital city of Caracas, reported the Press and Society Institute.
With President Dilma Rousseff's signature on Friday, Nov. 18, Brazil became the 89th country in the world to approve a freedom of information law, reported the Forum of Public Information Access. The law, which guarantees public access to government data and documents as well as private entities that receive public funding, will take effect in six months.
Faring about on par with Asia, better than Africa but worse than Europe, only about 38 percent of countries in Latin America were fully responsive to freedom of information requests filed by the Associated Press (AP) as part of a 105-country-wide project, the AP told the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. In general, more than half of countries don't abide by their freedom of information laws, MediaBistro noted.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) asked on Nov. 15 for the immediate release of the editor of the 6to Poder, Leocenis García. García has been jailed since Aug. 30, and has been on a hunger strike since Nov. 9.
"I haven't left work early since Mouriño's plane fell. Be careful fellow flyers," posted a Twitter user in Mexico just days before the helicopter carrying the Mexican interior minister and seven others crashed on Nov. 11 outside Mexico City. "Tomorrow on 11/11 a secretary will fall from the sky," tweeted another user with the handle Morf0.
The director of an organization that defends freedom of expression in Ecuador received death threats on Nov. 11, according to a report from the EFE news agency.
Bodyguards for Deputy Mario Rivera brutally beat two television reporters in Guatemala, according to a report by elPeriódico.
Reporter Guillermo Colina, a cameraman, and a technician for the Venezuelan opposition television station Globovisión were attacked by supporters of President Hugo Chávez while covering a patient protest outside a military hospital in the capital of Caracas, reported the Press and Society Institute on Nov. 7. The same reporter suffered a similar attack on Oct. 17.
For the fourth time in two months in the city of Nuevo Laredo in Mexico, a body has been found with a message threatening users of social networks, reported GlobalPost and La Jornada.