More than 20 Latin American universities are participating in the Hemispheric Conference of Universities on Aug. 25 and Aug. 26, organized by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
The Mexican Attorney General's (PGR in Spanish) special prosecutor Gustavo Salas Chávez said more journalists were killed in Northern Mexico than anywhere else in the country, according to the newspaper Vanguardia.
Brazil’s Senate president, José Sarney, blocked an attempt to censure Senator Robert Requião, who forcefully took a journalists tape recorder, erased what was on it, and threatened to hit the media worker during an April interview, G1 reports.
A man suspected of killing political journalist Auro Ida was arrested by the police July 25 in the neighborhood of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso where the crime occurred, G1 reports. Soon after, the 19-year-old man was released by the police when the victim’s girlfriend – the principal witness to the crime – failed to recognize him, Terra explains. The police say he is still under investigation.
While violence against the press in Paraguay is nowhere near the levels found in Mexico, Honduras, or Colombia, journalists in the country have little support and face daily risks, especially those in border regions controlled by international smuggling gangs, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) writes in its report “Journalists alone facing trafficking."
Amidst the new wave of violence against the Mexican press, including the killing of two journalists in two weeks, the discovery of a journalist's body in a secret grave, and the kidnapping of a reporter, journalists and press freedom organizations are doubting whether freedom of expression truly exists in Mexico.
In spite of promises from media outlets and the Mexican authorities to improve protection for journalists exposed to drug trafficking violence, attacks against the press are unceasing, prompting media workers to take to the streets to pressure the government to end the violence.
Nearly 70 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000 and the the Mexican government is “complicit” in the crimes against media workers, according to a new report by PEN Canada and the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto, the Toronto Star reports.
Journalist Mario Esteban López managed to escape with his life after the matches were too wet for his kidnappers to light the more than two gallons of gasoline they poured on him, EFE reports.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual Impunity Index, which ranks three Latin American countries among those where killers of journalist regularly escape justice, The Associated Press reports.