A Spanish journalist jailed in Cuba for 17 months over allegations of sexually exploiting minors after reporting on child prostitution on the island for the television station Telecinco arrived back in Madrid on Jan. 17, reported the news agency EFE.
The Mexican Supreme Court will review an appeal from oil businessmen against journalists from the magazine Contralínea charged with libel, reported the news agency Notimex.
An Argentine journalist was unlawfully detained after filming a violent police confrontation, reported the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA in Spanish). Along with being detained for nine hours, the journalist claims police forced him to erase the recording.
A lawyer who served as a newspaper source was killed in Honduras on Jan. 17, three days after speaking out against police abuse and torture, reported the freedom of expression organization C-Libre.
With Wikipedia blacked out to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) anti-piracy bills in the U.S. Congress, news outlets like the Washington Post, NPR and the Guardian teamed up to use crowdsourcing via Twitter to try to serve as a make-shift encyclopedia, according to the Huffington Post.
Argentine editor Alejandro Alfie accused businessman and owner of the media conglomerate Grupo Veintetrés, Sergio Szpolski, of threatening him over the phone for writing about the business in the newspaper Clarín, reported the newspaper La Nación.
In protest of two Congressional bills that critics contend amount to censorship of the Internet, Wikipedia announced that it will go dark on Wednesday Jan. 18, reported The New York Times.
On Jan. 10, Bahia became the first Brazilian state to establish a Social Communication Council characterized as a "consultative and deliberative" body charged with creating a state communication plan, reported the newspaper A Tarde.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security regularly monitors dozens of websites, including Facebook, Twitter, WikiLeaks, YouTube, and even the New York Times Lede Blog, Global Voices Online, and the Blog del Narco, in order to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture," reported Reuters on Thursday, Jan. 11.
A military judge has recommended that Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, face a court martial, reported the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Jan. 12.
Honduran freedom of expression NGO C-Libre accused a regional office of the Honduran National Commission of Human Rights (CONADEH) of restricting journalists from taking photos, videos, and interviewing immigrants held in a detention center in the city of Choluteca, in the south of the country.
The United States announced at its Mexican embassy that it will donate $5 million to improve the safety of journalists in the country over the next four years, reported CNN Mexico on Jan. 11.