For the second year in a row, President Jair Bolsonaro is the lead attacker of the press in Brazil, according to an annual survey by the National Federation of Journalists. According to the organization, the upcoming national and state elections in October, when Bolsonaro seeks re-election, will increase the risk for journalism in the country in 2022.
On January 25, 1997, photojournalist José Luis Cabezas was kidnapped, beaten, murdered, and cremated in a vacant lot on the Atlantic coast. On the 25th anniversary of his crime, the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA) invited 25 journalists to remember him with anecdotes and reflections on what his death represents for Argentine journalism.
In the first month of 2022, Latin America took the lead as the deadliest region for the press, with seven journalists killed: four in Mexico, two in Haiti and one in Honduras.
Three years after personally asking the President of Mexico for protection, journalist Lourdes Maldonado was shot dead in Tijuana. She is joined by two other colleagues who died violently in the country in less than a month, which colleagues, press freedom organizations, and citizens condemned.
The number of journalists murdered decreased in 2021 compared to 2020 worldwide. However, Mexico remains the most lethal country for journalists in the region, with 3 confirmed cases and 6 unconfirmed cases of journalists killed for their profession, according to the annual census of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists published the Global Impunity Index that lists the top 12 countries where perpetrators of crimes against journalists go free. Mexico and Brazil are the Latin American countries that made the ranking.
In Paraguay, 19 journalists have been murdered in the last 30 years, but few cases have been solved. The Bureau for the Safety of Journalists in Paraguay calls for effective measures to protect and prevent crimes against journalists.
In a move celebrated by journalists and press freedom advocates, Mexican officials announced the arrest of a former mayor in the 2017 murder of journalist Miroslava Breach.
Sixty journalists from 25 media outlets in 18 countries got involved in The Cartel Project, which investigated the vested interests behind the murders of journalists who covered violence and organized crime in Mexico.
One of the main missions of site Reporteros de Investigación of Honduras is to investigate the murders of its colleagues, as well as obstacles to press freedom in the country.