Mexican radio and TV media owners filed a petition asking the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate and review the pending sanctions against radio and television stations imposed by election officials, reported the newspaper Milenio.
After pardoning the journalists in a $40 million libel lawsuit against the newspaper El Universo, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa once again attacked the press, saying that in Latin America there exists a "media dictatorship" and that now is the time for "free citizens to rebel against this abuse," reported the news agency EFE.
After being offered asylum in Panama to avoid a $40 million libel lawsuit and three years in prison, one of the owners of the Ecuadoran newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez Barriga, arrived in Panama on Saturday, March 3, and met with the country's chancellor, Roberto Henríquez, reported the news agency Ansa Latina. Pérez had sought refuge in the Panamanian embassy in Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 16.
A team of television journalists from Globovisión in Venezuela was threatened while covering attacks by supporters of President Hugo Hugo Chavez against opposition candidate Henrique Caprilles Radonski in Cotiza, a neighborhood in the capital city of Caracas, according to Globovisión.
A Colombian activist and journalist who received death threats after uploading a video to YouTube showing police violence has decided to flee from his native city of Huila, Colombia, reported the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP in Spanish).
A judge in Curitiba, Brazil, ordered the Atlético Paranaense soccer team to allow journalist Osmar Antônio to do his job, otherwise the team faces a $29,000 fine for each act against the reporter, who works for Banda B, according to UOL Esporte. The decision was published Wednesday, Feb. 29.
A Chilean journalist was attacked by police while taking photos of a demonstration in support of residents of the region of Aysén in Santiago on Friday, Feb. 24, according to the Corporation of Promotion and Defense of the People's Rights (CODEPU in Spanish).
Unknown assailants beat a Mexican political journalist on Thursday, Feb. 23, in the city of Mexicali, located in northeastern Mexico along the Californian border, reported the Program for Freedom of Expression (Libex).
Milton Coleman, president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and an editor of The Washington Post, visited Honduras on Tuesday, Feb. 28, to talk with President Porfirio Lobo about a proposed bill to regulate the Honduran media, reported Proceso.
In February, an organization which defends freedom of expression, Article 19, launched the Community Communication Observatory, an online platform which aims to increase the visibility of bureaucratic difficulties and legislative problems facing community media outlets in Brazil.
Bolivia's National Press Association (ANP in Spanish) documented 200 cases of aggression against journalists in Bolivia in 2011, reported the news website Clases de Periodismo.
After international outcry, on Monday, Feb. 27, Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa announced his decision to pardon journalists in the $40 million libel suit against the newspaper El Universo, its three owners and a former newspaper columnist, who were facing three years in prison. The president also dismissed the fine against the authors of a book detailing the president's alleged acts of nepotism, reported the Associated Press.