Colombia started off 2013 with a series of attacks on the press, including death threats against three journalists, censorship at the hands of criminal gangs and the interrupted distribution of a newspaper in the department of Sucre, reported the Press Freedom Foundation, FLIP, in a press release Thursday, Jan. 31.
Brazilian photographer Jean Schwarz for the newspaper Zero Hora was beaten while he tried to cover a meeting of road workers in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, on Jan. 22, reported the publication.
The Antioquia Journalism Association, APA, requested protection for some journalists in the city of Medellín, claiming that they are the targets of threats and harassment.
After more than 20 denied requests in the last five years, well-known Cuban blogger and activist Yoani Sánchez was granted on Wednesday a passport to travel abroad.
Mexico and Cuba were the worst places for journalists in the Americas, tensions between the government and privately-owned media continued to escalate in Ecuador and Argentina, and Canada lost its position as press freedom leader in the continent.
Lúcio Flávio Pinto, founder and lone reporter for the blog Jornal Pessoal, has won eight prizes, published 22 books and been sued 33 times for his work as a journalist. Pinto's experience is emblematic of judicial censorship in Brazil.
The Colombian newspaper El Meridiano de Sucre claimed that copies of its publication were burned on Tuesday, Jan 29, to prevent its distribution.
Newspaper La Hora said last Friday the government of Ecuador is trying to censor its readers after the National Secretary of Communication, Patricio Barriga, sent a letter to the newspaper’s editor asking for an “effective filter” of reader comments.
A Costa Rican journalist avoided a libel lawsuit after retracting accusations she made against the brother of President Laura Chinchilla, Adrián Chinchilla, in an August 2012 article published in the newspaper La Nación.
A fire at a Brazilian nightclub in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul killed over 230 people and left 129 injured in the early morning of Sunday, Jan. 27, reported The New York Times and Zero Hora.
Courts in Pará ruled once again against journalist Lúcio Flávio Pinto, winner of last year's Vladimir Herzog Amnesty and Human Rights Award, among several other accolades for his work in recent years.
The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, has urged the governors and mayors of his country to accept media criticism as a “bucket of cold water” and see if they are doing things well, according to the newspaper El País.