After learning that a Colombian prosecutor had lodged a tutela – the country's judicial recourse to restore fundamental rights – against journalist María Jimena Duzán due to an opinion column, scandal broke out in the country as colleagues and press freedom organizations expressed their rejection of the use of this mechanism.
Although Mexico is known as one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, the threat to media professionals in the country is not just physical. In many cases, the enemies of freedom of expression and of the press resort not to arms, but to the courts, in an attempt to silence journalistic coverage that goes against their interests.
The first day of the soccer World Cup, which this year takes place in Russia, has yielded one of the most regrettable moments of news coverage of the event to date.
Several communication professionals in Honduras have denounced the theft of their belongings, as well as persecution and threats by the country’s armed forces, in the days following the controversial presidential elections held in the Central American country, according to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre).
If you are a woman working in a newsroom, the above accounts may seem familiar. They were collected during focus groups for the report "Women in Brazilian Journalism," produced in partnership between the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji, for its acronym in Portuguese) and the journalism site Gênero e Número. The results indicate that 70.4 percent of the women who answered the online survey said someone had made a pass at them at work that made them feel uncomfortable. Another 70.2 percent reported having seen or heard of harassment of colleagues in the workplace.
Bolivian journalist Yadira Peláez, who accused Carlos Flores, a former manager of state-owned Bolivia TV, of sexual harassment, is being sued for economic damage to BTV in a complaint filed by the channel's management, according to El Deber.
Bolivian journalist Yadira Peláez took matters into her own hands after she apparently felt an investigation into her complaint of sexual harassment was going nowhere.
Threats and abuse against Noé Zavaleta led the Mexican journalist to leave the state of Veracruz on Aug. 12, according to Aristegui Noticias.
Update (July 1, 2016): The legal processes and hearings against the Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo were temporarily suspended on June 30 by a judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Rosa Weber, according to O Estado de S. Paulo.
Last week, Brazilian journalists released the campaign Journalists against Harassment in order to denounce cases of harassment against media professionals and to raise public awareness about the issue. The campaign was created after the firing of a reporter who had reported having suffered sexual harassment during an interview with a Brazilian musician.