Special Rapporteurs at the UN and Inter-American Commission communicated their concerns about the deterioration of media freedom to the Venezuelan government in attempts to open a dialogue with authorities and improve the situation for journalists in the country.
Journalist César Lévano, director of the Peruvian newspaper Diario Uno (formerly newspaper La Primera), and journalist Javier Soto of the same media outlet, were sentenced to pay 50,000 soles (about USD $15,000) as civil reparation for the former advisor of the National Council of the Judiciary Luz Marina Guzmán, for alleged "moral damage" caused by one of their reports, according to the blog LaMula.
Salvadoran investigative journalist Óscar Martínez is one of the four winners of the International Press Freedom Awards from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Two Colombian reporters who were kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN) in May have received threatening text messages supposedly signed by the ELN, according to a recent report from the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).
In the midst of a tense social climate and reports of attacks on the press, social media users in Venezuela are spreading the hashtag #ExpresiónSinOpresión (#ExpressionWithoutOppression) to talk about the importance of freedom of expression in the country.
Government officials have called for an investigation into claims made by one of Latin America’s most serious newspapers that the state-owned Banco Nacional of Costa Rica (BNCR) used official advertising against it.
Venezuelan journalist Leocenis García, founder and editor of the now-defunct editorial group 6to Poder, has been in prison for a week after his house arrest was revoked on July 4 and he was transferred to the jail of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN for its acronym in Spanish).
The news team of the Sunday newscast Panorama was criminally charged by the Peruvian Defense Minister Jakke Valakivi after publishing a official secret documents that allegedly show evidence of embezzlement of resources of the Army Intelligence Service. The journalists could face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison for the crime of treason.
The task in front of Ana María Ruelas, the new director of the Article 19 Mexico and Central America office, will not be simple. In what is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist, she leads a team that fights daily for basic freedoms for communicators: access to information, protection from bodily harm and guarantees to freely carry out their work.
Update (July 1, 2016): The legal processes and hearings against the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo were temporarily suspended on June 30 by a judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Rosa Weber, according to O Estado de S. Paulo.
Journalist Álvaro Aceituno López, 65, was killed near his home in Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango in southwest Guatemala on June 25. He is the fifth journalist killed in Guatemala in the first six months of 2016, according to the Center for Informative Reports about Guatemala (Cerigua).
Jacinto (Jay) Torres Hernández, a journalist, photographer and real estate agent living in Texas, was found with a gunshot wound to the chest late June 13 in the backyard of a house in the city of Garland, according to newspaper La Estrella.