As a result of their ineffective prosecution of crimes against journalists and attempts at influencing news coverage, state authorities in Mexico have become a "major obstacle" to press freedom in the country, according to a report from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Press Institute (IPI).
Guatemalan journalist Luis Alberto Lemus Ruano was shot dead on Sunday, April 7, in the department of Jutiapa, near the Salvadoran border, reported the Guatemalan Information Centre.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused transnational buissneses and the local government of attacking and harrassing community radio stations in Oaxaca, Mexico that are opposed to the building of a wind power station in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
A Mexican Facebook and Twitter user, who reported on violence and attacks in the north of Mexico, announced on Sunday the definitive closing of the account Valor por Tamaulipas in the coming nine days, reported Proceso.
The Committee to Protect Journalists highlighted last week the cyber-attack against the websites of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the International Symposium for Online Journalism, which knocked down the sites for two weeks.
The government of Ecuador announced that it will file a new lawsuit against newspaper La Hora for having published a series of photographs that, it claims, incites to hatred, reported newspaper El Universo. The National Secretariat of Communication, Secom, plans to file the lawsuit between today and tomorrow, the newspaper added.
The Honduran National Commissioner on Human Rights, Ramón Custodio, suggested that a proposed telecommunications bill would enable censorship, violate the right to private property and make the state a content producer, according to the newspaper La Tribuna
Violence continues in Mexico but the new administration of president Enrique Peña Nieto is making an all-too-obvious push to disassociate the country’s image from drugs, cartels and bloodshed, according to three leading U.S. correspondents based in Mexico during an April 4 panel hosted by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.
The International Press Institute, IPI, demanded the immediate release of Cuban journalist Calixto Martínez who was arrested for insulting authorities, according to a press released from the organization.
On April 2, the governor of the Mexican state of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, received an award from the Mexican Association of Newspaper Editors (AME in Spanish) for his role in "guaranteeing freedom of expression."
The International Press Institute is urging authorities in Haiti to consider Georges Henri Honorat's role as a journalist among the possible motives for his shooting last week, citing several instances of journalists targeted for their work in Haiti.
In June 2012, journalist Ana Lilia Pérez joined the ranks of at least 15 other Mexican journalists living in exile after receiving threats, according to Reporters Without Borders.