Using a new application for Android phones, any journalist in Mexico and Colombia can report real-time attacks to organizations dedicated to protecting freedom of expression, reported newspaper El Universal.
Media outlets in Guatemala protested against authorities for the pepper spray attacks that 28 journalists suffered in two occasions while trying to interview Roberto Barreda -- the son of former Chief Justice Beatriz de León -- who is accused of the disappearance and murder of his wife Cristina Siekavizza in 2011, Cerigua reported.
With a final tally of 46 Mexican journalists and human rights defenders attacked on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013 in the march commemorating the 1968 student massacre at Tlatelolco, the organization Article 19 described this attack on freedom of expression as the most violent in Mexico City during a social protest rally.
Viltor García, a bodyguard for cable channel director Karen Rottman, had just finished his shift on Oct. 19 when he was shot and killed by attackers in a vehicle with tinted glass windows in Guatemala City, informed Reporters without Borders (RSF). Rottman is the director of Vea Canal, an independent cable channel critical of the nation's administration.
The reported cases of aggression against journalists in Mexico reached a total of 225 between January and September of this year. Of these, two of the journalists died and 33 left the country under threats. In addition to the violence of organized crime, a serious problem of institutional censorship also affects Mexico.
There have been 150 preliminary investigations into attacks against journalists in the first nine months of this year initiated by the Special Prosecutor on Attention to Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) in Mexico, informed deputy director Alberto Peralta Flores, according to the website of the Mexican magazine Proceso.
Journalism organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) called on Colombian authorities to guarantee the safety of four journalists who had received threats from La Guajira governor Juan Francisco Gómez. Last weekend, Gómez was arrested for his alleged participation in three killings and accused of having links with criminal organizations, news agency AFP reported.
By Alsha Khan In the last twelve months in Venezuela, there has been a decline of Internet freedom, showing a substantial increase in the censorship of opinions about political events, like the death of Hugo Chávez and the presidential elections in April, according to the report Freedom on the Net published by Freedom House in […]
Mexican daily Reforma reported that a distributor of newspaper El Norte, belonging to the same editorial group, was physically attacked and threatened by armed men in the early morning of Oct. 1 in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, located in the northern state of Nuevo León.
At least 15 journalists were the targets of aggressions from protesters and police officers yesterday in Mexico City while they covered the 45-anniversary of the student massacre in Tlatelolco.