While in a boat covering former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s vacation in the coastal city of Guarujá, two reporters for Folha de S. Paulo newspaper were stopped by a government-run security team and had their equipment confiscated, Folha reports.
Two of Panama's government-allied deputies have announced a draft law that would jail those who “offend, insult, or vilify” the president or other government officials, prompting criticism from members of the opposition, journalists, and the Panamanian ombudsman, Telemetro and AFP reports.
Maritânia Forlin, a TV journalist in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, was arrested for allegedly passing information about police operations to criminals in exchange for exclusive stories, RPC TV reports.
Bolivia has approved the final rules governing the “Law to Fight against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination,” which was passed by Congress and signed by President Evo Morales in October, Bolpress reports. Many media organizations criticized the bill for articles in it that they say violate freedom of expression.
Transparency and public information access advocates accused the Supreme Federal Court (STF) of censoring information about investigations against politicians and public officials, O Globo reports.
A Buenos Aires judge has ruled that demonstrators cannot block access to AGR, a printing company owned by the Clarín media group, and said the Security Ministry must take steps to guarantee the company’s ability to print, Clarín and La Nación newspapers report.
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights presented a complaint against Argentina before the Inter-American Court of the Organization of American States for violating the freedom of expression of two journalists who 15 years ago revealed that ex-President Carlos Menem had a child out of wedlock.
This year, Honduras was added to the list of most dangerous countries for journalists and the killing of HRN radio correspondent Henry Suazo the morning of Dec. 28 was one more on a growing list of crimes against journalists that remain unpunished.
Journalist José Luis Galdámez and his family deserve protection by Honduran authorities, according to an order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, reported the Associated Press.
Freedom of expression activists spoke out against the island’s Legislative Assembly for trying to prosecute Brent Fuller, a journalist for the Caymanian Compass, for an article criticizing a plan to review the country’s information access laws in closed-door committee hearings.
Editors of Ecuador’s Vanguardia magazine have petitioned a court to order the return of 40 computers confiscated during a police raid on the magazine’s Quito headquarters. See reports in English by the Inter American Press Association and the local NGO Fundamedios.
A court's decision to shut down an online parody of Folha de S. Paulo has drawn international criticism. The site’s name and address parodied Folha de S. Paulo (The São Paulo Journal) with “Falha de S. Paulo” (The São Paulo Failure), which featured criticism and humorous fake headlines from the newspaper. It was taken offline by a September court order, and last week, a São Paulo court upheld the ruling, Portal Imprensa reports.