The meeting began with a moment of silence for slain television journalist Yensi Roberto Ordoñez Galdamez. Nearly 80 journalists bowed their heads as they gathered for the “3rd International Meeting of Journalists from the Departments and the Capital of Guatemala.” Their mission: to bring journalists together for training and dialogue in hopes of improving coverage of the upcoming elections.
Journalist Eduardo Villatoro says he received telephoned death threats for his reports on mining and gas plants on the coasts of Guatemala, Cerigua reports via IFEX. Callers told the journalist he could be killed for being an enemy of progress and discouraging foreign investment.
Alleged members of Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s biggest criminal organizations, were arrested while posting a banner threatening the press in the western Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango, Observador Global reports.
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has announced the 2012 class of Nieman Fellows, including Claudia Méndez Arriaza of Guatemala's El Periódico newspaper, and Carlos Eduardo Huertas of Colombia's Revista Semana, according to the Nieman Lab.
Journalist Yensi Roberto Ordóñez was found dead of apparent stab wounds inside a car in the southern Guatemalan city of Nueva Concepción, Escuintla, EFE reports.
In 2010 there were only 19 attacks against journalists and media outlets in Guatemala – a sharp decline from 60 and 69 in 2009 and 2008, respectively – however a Cerigua study shows that self-censorship is rising in areas affected by drug trafficking, Prensa Libre reports.
Héctor Cordero, a correspondent for Guatevisión TV in the Guatemalan department (state) of Quiché, answered questions for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas about the difficulties of being a journalist and the importance of adhering to journalistic ethics during an election season. For example, members of the Patriotic Party's communications team attacked two Channel 2 journalists at a press conference in January. Cordero, also a member of GuateDigital, a network of journalists from the interior of the country, last year received death threats after reporting on nepotism involving a local congre
Guatemalan journalists Jorge Toledo and Norman Rodas, of Channel 2 in the department, or state, of Quiché, had just finished covering a press conference of the Patriotic Party on Saturday, Jan. 15, when they were attacked by persons identified as members of the political party's communications team, reported Cerigua.
Luis Ángel Sas, an investigative journalist for elPeriódico, reported receiving death threats that made reference to his recent reports on Guatemalan military weapons that ended up in the hands of the Mexico-based criminal group Los Zetas, Cerigua reports. Sas – whose beat is drug trafficking, corruption, and crime – told Noticieros Televisa that he first received threats at the offices of elPeriódico while he was at an investigating organized crime conference in Panama. A recent report by a Guatemalan freedom of expression group called drug trafficking groups like Los Zetas one of the biggest threats to journalism
Drug trafficking and transnational organized crime are the among the new threats that Guatemalan journalists are facing, according to study on freedom of expression in the country, EFE reports.