Four Mexican photojournalists reported being victims of police abuse while covering teacher manifestations on Saturday in the state of Veracruz (east of the country), informed Reporters Without Borders. According to the RWB report, agents of the Ministry of Public Safety beat the journalists and took their equipment.
Colombian journalist and attorney Édison Alberto Molina was killed last week in the city of Puerto Berrío in the Department of Antioquia, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Molina was attacked on Sep. 11 by unidentified suspects that shot him four times in the head when he was heading back to his house with his wife, who was mildly injured.
Journalist Antônio Fabiano Portilho Coene, the owner of news Portal i9 was kidnapped on Monday Sept. 9 by armed men in the city of Campo Grande in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, website Diario do Estado informed.
Not all media outlets were accomplices to the disinformation campaign that prevailed in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, said Marcelo Castillo, president of the Journalists’ Association in Chile, in response to declarations made by President Sebastián Piñera to the foreign press, and previously, to Chilean newspaper La Tecera.
The Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism (Abraji in Portuguese) registered 21 cases of violations against 20 journalists during the protests on Saturday, Sept. 7. Police agents were behind 85% of the attacks -- or 18 cases -- most of which involved the use of pepper spray. The number may increase as more cases are confirmed.
More than 20 journalists have been attacked or threatened while reporting on the national strike that has brought Colombia’s agriculture industry to a standstill since August 18, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Four journalists were assaulted and hospitalized on Friday, Aug. 22, while covering the first session of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI in Portuguese) on bus transportation of the Rio de Janeiro City Council, reported the News site G1.
Guatemalan reporter Carlos Alberto Orellana Chávez was killed on Monday, Aug. 19, in the town of San Bernardino, located in the province of Suchitepéquez, reported Cerigua. Orellana Chávez is the fourth reporter killed in Guatemala this year.
The Civic Association for Communication and Information for Women (CIMAC in Spanish) released a report yesterday on violence against female journalists in Mexico. The document details the types of offenders, forms of violence, age and marital status of almost 100 journalists who have been attacked or intimidated in the last decade.
The director of a Guatemalan newspaper accused the government of trying to enter his house on two separate occasions last week, reported Spanish news agency EFE. However, federal officials denied that the agents had the intention of entering his home or intimidating him.