The Bolivian Constitutional Court ruled that insult crimes against public officials are unconstitutional, violating citizens' right to freedom of expression, reported the website Prensa Libre. While the decision was dated Sept. 20, the announcement was not made until Tuesday, Oct. 23, by Court president Ruddy Flores, according to the website.
An Ecuadorian newspaper was fined $500 for publishing photographs of underage children with President Rafael Correa, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The judge for Children and Adolescents fined the director of the newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez Barriga, on Oct. 2, according to IPYS.
Ecuador's Electoral Court (TCE in Spanish) sentenced a magazine to pay $80,000 for publishing an editorial on Sept. 26, reported the newspaper El Universo.
As Televisa continues to deny any connection between the television broadcaster and a money laundering ring in Nicaragua, a prosecutor in the Central American country said that some of the suspects, arrested while impersonating reporters, supposedly called the broadcaster shortly before they were apprehended.
Televisa categorically denied in a press release that six seized trucks bearing the Mexican television network's logo and used to transport $9.2 million in an alleged money laundering case in Nicaragua were registered in the company's name.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa warned a newspaper that it "will have to answer to justice" after publishing an article, reported the non-governmental organization Fundamedios.
Panamanian press organizations joined the Inter American Press Association in decrying a sentence upheld against two journalists and a newspaper, calling it an attack on freedom of expression, according to the news agency EFE and the newspaper La Estrella.
The Paraguayan Journalists' Syndicate (SPP in Spanish) repudiated the intimidation and attack on two journalists by President Federico Franco and his brother, reported the website Crónica Viva.
The Colombian Attorney General declared the kidnapping and torture of journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima by the Centauros block of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia paramilitary group in 2000 as crimes against humanity, reported the newspaper El Tiempo.
The Press Union of Rosario (SPR in Spanish) defended its proposal to add the standard of "actual malice" to the Argentine civil code on Sept. 4, reported the organization's website.
A Honduran court sentenced the killer of a journalist to 28 years in prison, reported the newspaper La Tribuna on Tuesday, Sept. 11.
A journalist based in the United States has rejected claims by Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe that he was defamed by the reporter for Haiti-Observateur, said Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, Sept. 13.