At least 15 articles of Ecuador's new Organic Penal Code, partially approved by the National Assembly, could limit freedom of expression and turn into a tool to persecute citizens critical of the government, according to a report published by NGO Fundamedios.
After a heated debate during the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) over Peruvian media conglomerate Grupo El Comercio's recent purchase of more than half of the shares of publishing group Epensa, media firm La República announced it will file a lawsuit against its competitor for monopolistic practices.
The Argentine Supreme Court declared today the country’s controversial media law constitutional, dealing the final blow to media conglomerate Clarín’s attempts to resist complying with the legislation, newspaper La Nación reported.
Humberto Espinoza Maguiña, a Peruvian journalist and the former editor of the daily newspaper Prensa Regional, was sentenced twice for defamation, between Sep. 18 and 19, for denouncing alleged acts of government corruption by César Álvarez Aguilar, the regional president of Áncash, a northeastern region to the north of Lima. Maguiña received two years of prison, 120 days of community service and a fine of 5,000 soles (around $2,000), according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
A new trial against Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori will begin on Oct. 17, this time for misappropriating almost $44 million from the Peruvian Armed Force budget. Fujimori is accused of using the money to bribe the owners of eight Peruvian tabloids of the yellow press, also known as “chicha” newspapers, and purchase their support during his third reelection campaign in 2000, the country’s anti-corruption prosecutor assistant, Joel Segura, told the news agency Andina.
After Venezuela's withdrawal from the American Convention on Human Rights on Sep. 10, Venezuelans are now unable to take cases pertaining to freedom of expression violations, among others, to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, said Ariel E. Dulitzky, former assistant executive secretary at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and a leading expert in the inter-American human rights system, in a recent interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) asked Brazilian federal courts on Tuesday to take up the murder case of Brazilian sports journalist Valério Luiz de Oliveira who was murdered in the state of Goiás on July 5, 2012.
As Brazil begins its investigation into claims that the U.S. spied on the communications of President Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian lawmakers are seeking federal protection for journalist Glenn Greenwald and his partner David Miranda, RT.com reported. Legislators say Greenwald and Miranda need to be protected due to the importance of their testimony on the probe.
A man involved in the attempted murder of the founder and former editor of the Mexican magazine Zeta was absolved of the charges Thursday.
A Brazilian court has prohibited Diario de Pernambuco and Jornal do Commercio, two of the largest newspapers in the state of Pernambuco, from mentioning the name or show pictures of the president of the state’s Legislative Assembly, Guilherme Uchoa, news portal Terra reported. The decision also applies to Brazilian station TV Clube.
A group of 60 persons -- among them journalists, politicians, writers and former Ecuadorian legislators -- have filed a new lawsuit before the Constitutional Court with the goal of revoking the country's controversial communications law, representing the second attempt to strike down the law through the courts.
The recent surge of legal actions against private media outlets in Venezuela has caught the attention of several journalism organizations, who have described them as attacks on freedom of expression.