Representatives from the Colombian Attorney General and Prosecutor's Offices asked the Supreme Court to overturn a journalist's conviction for libel, reported the newspaper El Espectador. According to the spokespersons, journalist Luis Agustín González's opinion column is protected by the right to freedom of expression and therefore cannot be charged politically or criminally, added the newspaper.
The Mexican Secretary of Government announced the 17 members that make up the Advisory Council for the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, reported the news agency Notimex.
The state government of Puebla filed a legal complaint against two journalists for "abusing freedom of expression" and the local press reported that the government is considering 17 more similar cases, according the news agency AFP.
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.