The Andean Foundation for Social Observation and Media Studies, Fundamedios, said that its Twitter account had been suspended for six days “without warning and without explanation.” Although the account has already been reactivated, the organization said that the closing was still worrying because of its “arbitrariness,” it said on its website.
Are media blackouts effective—or even ethical—when a journalist has been kidnapped? That’s the question Frank Smyth, a senior adviser for journalist security with the Committee to Protect Journalists, explored in a recent blog post on the organization’s website on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
Renowned Mexican reporters Marcela Turati and Javier Valdez, as well as Chilean narrative journalist Cristian Alarcón, will discuss on Feb. 28 their work and the need to forge a bridge between journalists and academics during a forum hosted at the University of Texas at Austin.
In what has become a historic decision, the Council of State of Colombia ordered the National Police to correct a statement given in 1996 that affected two businessmen, said the newspaper El Tiempo. The Director of the Police will have to give a press conference and correct the information given to a television news program as an “exclusive” that linked two businessmen with a drug cartel, said the paper.
The Brazilian media company UH News was sentenced to pay over $7,500 in moral damages, according to the court's website.
A Brazilian court ruled on Wednesday, Feb. 20, that the blog "Falha de São Paulo," a parody of the Folha de São Paulo newspaper will remain offline, reported Carta Capital.
The Peruvian Public Defender filed a constitutional complaint against one of the articles in Legislative Decree 1129 on Feb. 15, which it claims violates the constitutional right to "access public information," reported the newspaper La República. Article 12 of the decree declares that all information related to national security and defense is classified, added the newspaper.
Two Haitian journalists said they were repeatedly beaten by Haitian President Michel Martelly’ssecurity agents when the president visited RFM radio’s headquarters on Tuesday, Feb. 12, reported news site Defend.HT.
After winning a five-year battle for the right to travel outside Cuba, blogger Yoani Sánchez was met by protestors when she deplaned after arriving at her first international destination, Brazil. Demonstrators in the airport lounge supporting the Castro regime held signs accusing Sánchez of being under the influence of the United States, reported the website Terra.
Two international journalism organizations visited Mexico to evaluate the government's measures to protect journalists and the media's own safety strategies when reporting in the country's most dangerous regions, according to a statement from the International Press Institute and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-INFRA).
The reelected president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, said the “big loser” of the election was the country’s private press when asked how it would figure in to his new mandate, said the newspaper El Universo. Correa said he would continue with the Communications Law because what the people want “is an honest and responsible press. Never with censorship, but with ulterior responsibility.”
A Mexican criminal organization is offering a reward for information about the administrator of a Facebook page and Twitter account, who over the last year has been reporting on violent crime in the state of Tamaulipas, one of the areas most affected by the country’s drug war, according to the magazine Proceso.