On the eve of municipal elections in Brazil, journalists suffered assaults in several cities across the country. The assaults shared a common thread of alleged illegal behavior by candidates and their supporters.
Owner of the newspaper Jornal da Praça, Luis Henrique Georges, was shot to death in the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, near the border with Paraguay on Thursday, Oct. 4, reported Uol.
A radio broadcaster was bombed on the evening of Thursday, Oct. 4, reported the newspaper ABC. According to the website Última Hora, two self-identified members of the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP in Spanish) set off two explosives after bursting into the offices of the radio station Guyra Campana in the city of Horqueta, Concepción.
Police arrested a Mexican journalist for recording a confrontation after an election from the window of his hotel room in the city of Motozintla, Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border, reported the news agency ANSA.
A Brazilian journalist for Record News was violently attacked with an iron rod, leaving him with a head injury, two broken ribs and bruises on his body, while covering a rally for a mayoral candidate in Estreito, Maranhão.
On Friday, Sept. 21, the Colombian government began consulting journalists who were victims of the armed conflict to identify proposals and strategies for their collective reparation, according to the Unit for the Care and Reparation of Victims' website.
On Sept. 18, Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) addressed the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights about the current situation in Venezuela in the last weeks before the Oct. 7 presidential elections.
Hostilities against journalists and bloggers in Brazil leading up to municipal elections do not stop at censorship; media professionals also face a rise in attacks by candidate supporters.
The United States will collaborate with the Honduran government to defend human rights in the face of rising attacks on journalists and press freedom violations, reported Fox News Latino.
Conflicting versions of a violent confrontation between supporters of President Hugo Chávez and opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles demonstrate the polarization of the press in Venezuela less than a month from the elections.