A Brazilian radio host survived what police said was an attempt on his life motivated by his reports on illegal activity. Jair Pereira Teixeira, 45, was shot three times on March 27 in Forquilha in the state of Ceará in northeastern Brazil.
At least 27 journalists and other media workers were murdered in the Americas for reasons that could be tied to their work during 2015. This was documented by the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in their 2015 Annual Report released on March 23.
Cuban independent journalist and activist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca was jailed and held incommunicado for five days after being detained just hours before U.S. President Barack Obama’s arrival to Cuba on March 20. The journalist went to the church of Santa Rita, as usual, to cover the march led every Sunday in Havana by the Ladies in White organization, according to Martí Noticias.
Once more, Colombian authorities are investigating threats against journalists and social leaders distributed via pamphlets and signed with the name of a criminal group.
In 2015, Mexico saw one attack against journalists every 22 hours, making that year the most violent for the country’s press since 2009, according to an annual report from freedom of expression organization Article 19 Mexico. This violence, along with the pervasive impunity that follows, an unresponsive state, weak democracy and inaccessible protective agencies, have created a culture of fear among the country's journalists, the report said.
After a TV crew was taken hostage in Paraná, a station invaded in Goiania and eight reporters beaten in São Paulo, on March 10, UNESCO and representatives of Brazilian media corporations delivered a letter to the country’s Minister of Social Communication calling for action to protect journalists and to ensure the media can work safely during the coverage of corruption investigations in the country.
According to witnesses, two people on a motorcycle fired eight shots at a car parked in the garage of Brazilian journalist Kenedy Salomé Lenk in the early morning hours of March 10, reported newspaper O Globo. The journalist, his wife and daughter were asleep inside the house at the time.
Brazilian radio host João Valdecir de Borba, known as Valdão, was killed on March 10 while working in the studios of Rádio Difusora AM in São Jorge do Oeste, southwestern Paraná state.
The director of Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Caroní, David Natera Febres, was sentenced to four years in prison for crimes of defamation and injuria related to reports published in 2013 that denounced cases of corruption in a state mining company, reported nonprofit organization Espacio Público. Natera Febres was given 10 days to appeal the decision.
The new challenges to the implementation of free-to-air digital television in Latin American countries, and its impacts on freedom of expression in the region, were discussed on April 5 during the 157th Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Agência Pública, a prime example of the independent media landscape in Brazil, has launched two innovations during the month of its five-year anniversary: a cultural center to support independent journalism and an unprecedented interactive map on new journalistic initiatives in the country.
The Colombian media may have never talked so much about peace as they did in 2015, when the government and the FARC guerrilla advanced in negotitions to end the armed conflict of more than 50 years. However, this has not translated into decreased attakcs on the press in the country.