Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon testified at a briefing on press freedom in Latin America that violence and legal harassment are the biggest obstacles journalists face in the region, according to CPJ’s website.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has warned about a new wave of threats and harassment against Cuban journalists.
Amid Argentine public officials' mounting attacks against the press, the Inter American Press Association asked the Argentine government to "stop harassing and stigmatizing journalists,” reported the news agency Los Andes. The call comes as two more Argentine journalists were victims of officials' anti-press attitudes.
The deputy director of a local newspaper in Mexico said that he was detained for an hour in the mayor's office, where he was forced to reveal his source for a news story, reported the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET in Spanish).
After police in Trinidad and Tobago raided the office of the Newsday newspaper and the home of reporter Andre Bagoo on Thursday, Feb. 9, the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) is calling for police to apologize and return Bagoo's hard drive and personal computers, reported the Trinidad Express.
More than 20 armed police officers searched the offices of a private television station in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago on Jan. 1, according to the International Press Institute (IPI).
On Nov. 17, electronic equipment and office supplies were stolen from the Venezuelan freedom of expression NGO, Public Space, in the capital city of Caracas, reported the Press and Society Institute.
Brazilian television reporter Monalisa Perrone was violently interrupted by several men while reporting the status of former President Lula's health for TV Globo's Jornal Hoje on Oct. 31, reported O Globo.
A member of the Colombian criminal organization Los Urabeños called in to a radio show in the northern city of Valledupar saying that he had been ordered to attack a journalist and several other individuals, reported the Colombian Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP in Spanish).
Valdir Cardoso, the Brazilian journalist responsible for the site O Jornal MS, is denouncing the way a judicial order to confiscate one of his videos was carried out, according to the digital newspaper Midiamax. The video in question is about a supposed corruption case involving government officials from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.