Military police accompanied by a court official confiscated television sets, cameras, furniture, and even the transmitters of the television channell TV Descalvados, affiliate of the SBT network in the town of Cáceres, in the western state of Mato Grosso, reported Midia News. The seizure, which forced the channel off the air, was court-ordered to pay for "moral damages" inflicted on the city's first lady, Gisele Fontes, according tol Diário de Cuiabá.
Prosecutors in the western city of Mendoza opened a case against Víctor Fayad, the city’s mayor, for serious threats he allegedly made to the news director of MDZ Online via text messages last April, Perfil and Los Andes report.
Seven legislators flew to D.C. to criticize Ecuador’s controversial draft media law in front of several international groups, including the Organization of American States and Freedom House, El Universo and EFE report.
The Bolivian Chamber of Deputies recently passed a controversial law that would criminalize racist or discriminatory acts, BBC Mundo reports. Journalism and media groups have said that the law, which is still waiting Senate approval, “violates freedom of expression,” because it could punish third parties for covering controversial issues.
Similar to the United States' recent denial of a visa for television journalist Hollman Morris to come to Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, now a second Colombian journalist, Claudia Duque, has had her visa request rejected, according to journalism.co.uk.
Two individuals set on fire the motorcycle of journalist Alberto Caballero Parejo, owner of the community radio station Innovación Estéreo (Innovation Stereo) in Ciéanaga, reported El Informador. Neighbors warned the journalist and helped him to put out the fire.
The 15th journalist freed from prison in Cuba went into exile in Spain on Wednesday, Sept. 8., according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The media companies with good relationships with the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernández received during the first months of 2010 as much as 780 times more revenue from official ads than those media considered enemies of the administration, reported Clarín. The calculation evaluated the amount each media company received multiplied by the amount of people the ad reached, explained O Globo.
The decision of the Honduran Congress to allocate the frequency of television channel Canal 8 to the government has prompted criticisms, and the owner of Teleunsa -- which currently operates the signal -- has accused President Porfirio Lobo of plotting to take over the station, reported La Prensa and AFP.
Cuban dissident and journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who in July ended his 135-day hunger strike, is recovering after emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder on Sept. 3, reported AFP and the Miami Herald.
In recognition of the challenges and restrictions she faces as a blogger in Cuba, and her defense of freedom of expression, the International Press Institute (IPI), based in Vienna, has named Yoani Sanchez of its 60 heroes of press freedom. (See also this story from EFE in Spanish).
Luis Carlos Cervantes, correspondent for Teleantioquia in Tarazá, is being protected by police after receiving anonymous death threats that told him to leave town within 72 hours, reported El Espectador and RCN Noticias.