An Ecuadorian judge's decision to sentence Hoy newspaper director Jaime Mantilla Anderson to three months in prison for libel drew condemnation from the Inter American Commission of Human Rights' Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, the Inter American Press Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists, reported the news agency EFE.
The Brazilian newspaper Diário do Litoral claimed that its journalists have been intimidated following the publication of a story accusing a beach condominium's security team in the southern coastal city of Guarujá of operating as a "militia," the newspaper stated in a letter released by the website Red on Jan. 2.
Argentina's Arab community spoke out against against a Dec. 31, 2011, cartoon published in the newspaper Clarín, where a man in sandals, turban, and a belt of dynamite was selling imported fireworks, reported the news agency UPI.
Mexican newspapers El Diario de Coahuila and El Heraldo de Saltillo criticized the private security business Serviprose, whose guards are accused of attacking and stealing from reporters in the northern city of Saltillo, for failing to comply with an agreement to pay damages.
An Argentine television reporter and cameraman were beaten, threatened with death, and ordered to strip when they tried to cover a human trafficking story about Bolivian families on a farm in the western province of Mendoza on Dec. 29, reported the official news agency Télam and Diario Uno.
Three Guatemalan journalists and a photographer are among 52 persons accused of participating in the kidnapping, torture, and killing of diplomats during this Central American country's civil war that lasted from 1960 to 1996.
The Brazilian Senate recently bucked a 2009 ruling by the South American country's Supreme Court when it approved a bill reestablishing the requirement that all practicing journalists have an advanced degree.
The Argentine journalist Patricio Downes gave testimony in the trial of priest Horacio Zitelli for crimes against humanity on Dec. 15, reported the newspaper Clarín.
The Ecuadorian blogger who coined the tag "30S" or "30-S" to follow tweets about the police protest on Sept. 30, 2010, came out against the government's attempt to trademark 30S, reported the newspapers El País and El Universo.
Journalists have joined the growing list of groups opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration by the U.S. congress, according to the Washington Post.
Brazilian journalist Claudio Dantas Sequeira was threatened by the brother of the governor of the Brazilian Federal District, Angelo Queiroz, as he interviewed him for a report on the family's new-found wealth for the magazine Isto É on Dec. 11, reported the Press and Society Institute.
The Mexican newspaper La Jornada de Guerrero claimed that one of its reporters was beaten and jailed in the southern city of Chilpancingo.