Threats and obstacles to journalism in the digital environment will be the topics discussed during this year's commemoration of World Press Freedom Day. Progress will also be analyzed on journalists' safety and impunity, on the 10th anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on this issue.
The Venezuelan courts handed over the headquarters of the independent traditional newspaper El Nacional to congressman and former president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, as part of a multi-million dollar civil compensation defamation lawsuit filed against the newspaper and its directors. “It is the newspaper's most important asset,” Miguel Henrique Otero, director of El Nacional, told LJR.
Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz was acquitted in a trial for aggravated defamation. Since 2018, Ugaz has been repeatedly sued for defamation based on her investigations into the alleged sexual and psychological abuse of minors and financial irregularities of the Catholic congregation Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana.
Peruvian journalist Christopher Acosta received a two-year suspended prison sentence in a trial for aggravated defamation and crimes against honor. The plaintiff is businessman and former presidential candidate César Acuña, on whom Acosta bases his journalistic investigation in the book "Plata como cancha."
A recently published study revealed how journalists in Mexico and Brazil deal with the stress resulting from risky experiences in the profession, and how these experiences are connected to structural issues that affect the field of journalism.
Organizations have launched courses, training or guides on the subject and, more recently, started to provide personalized and free assistance to women journalists who suffer online harassment.
As it did in Latin America, COVID-19 has a strong impact on the media outlets in Portugal and Spain, with a drastic reduction in advertising, and cuts to staff and salary.
Folha de S. Paulo journalist Patrícia Campos Mello was once again the target of a series of attacks on her reputation on Feb. 11, after the testimony of a witness to the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry.
Guatemalan journalist Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, founder and director of the site Nómada, is being accused of sexually harassing at least five women, according to an investigation by journalist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro. All are young journalists, and three of them allegedly are former employees of the site founded by Rodríguez Pellecer in 2014. He denies the accusations and has stepped down as director of Nómada while an investigation into the case is under way.
Twenty years ago, journalists could not have imagined the present situation for media in Venezuela, according to Luz Mely Reyes, director and co-founder of digital site Efecto Cocuyo.