Through Twitter accounts of officials or public institutions in Ecuador, 1,384 Tweets with speech disparaging, discrediting or stigmatizing the press in the country were published between June 2012 and November 2015.
A report released in May by the Center for Archives and Access to Public Information (CAinfo for its name in Spanish) registered a decrease in threats on freedom of expression in Uruguay. The text also showed that most of the cases occurred in the capital of Montevideo and are related to obstruction of journalistic work.
In 2015, Venezuela saw the highest number of violations to freedom of expression and right to information since 2002, according to a recent annual report from the Press and Society Institute (IPYS for its initials in Spanish) Venezuela.
Journalists and freedom of expression advocates around the globe celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
Media outlets and freedom of speech advocacy organizations from around the world came together to honor World Press Freedom Day, celebrated every May 3 since its proclamation by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993.
Peruvian journalist Rafael Léon was sentenced for the crime of defamation on May 3, according to newspaper La República. The sentence, which coincided with the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, requires Léon to pay 6,000 Peruvian soles (about U.S. $1,800) in civil damages and to undergo a one-year probationary period in which he must comply with rules of conduct that include not moving homes and offering to sign a monthly record.
Peruvian journalist Fernando Valencia’s case will be presented before to the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), according to the newspaper La República.
Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean experienced a decrease in media freedom from 2014 to 2015, according to a recent index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French).
Using the SecureDrop system, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a digital platform that journalists and other people around the world can use to share information with them or to report violations of press freedom.
The mid-year meeting of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which took place from April 8 to 11 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, concluded discussions renewing its support for press freedom and condemning the continuing violence suffered by journalists on the continent.
Documents obtained by judicial order show that the company JBS, one of the largest food company in the world, and another company contracted by it in 2015 sponsored a smear campaign against Brazilian journalist and founder of the nonprofit organization Reporter Brazil, Leonardo Sakamoto. The information was published by Folha de S. Paulo on April 8.
The director of Complejo Editorial Alfredo Maneiro (CEAM for its initials in Spanish), the Venezuelan state enterprise in charge of selling newsprint to print media outlets in the country, was sued for what the complainants said is the discriminatory allocation of newsprint paper that caused newspaper El Carabobeño newspaper to end its print edition, according to information from the NGO Espacio Público.