Panamanian journalists have joined forces to demand more respect for freedom of expression and to express objections over legal setbacks in the area, reported La Prensa.
The Electoral Court in Mato Grosso state issued an injunction against the state’s largest media company, Gazeta, preventing it from publishing stories that say acting Federal Deputy and current Senate candidate Carlos Abicalil (PT) supports decriminalizing abortion, A Gazeta and Folha de S. Paulo report. The ruling would fine the paper A Gazeta and the TV station Canal 10 more than $58,000 if they fail to comply.
According to Perfil, the legal offensive by the government against the country’s most prolific dailies has taken a new step, as it prepares to open criminal charges against the owner and director of Clárin Group, Ernestina Herrera de Noble and Héctor Magnetto, respectively, and the director of La Nación, Bartolomé Mitre. They are accused of being direct accomplices in crimes against humanity during the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983).
Military police accompanied by a court official confiscated television sets, cameras, furniture, and even the transmitters of the television channell TV Descalvados, affiliate of the SBT network in the town of Cáceres, in the western state of Mato Grosso, reported Midia News. The seizure, which forced the channel off the air, was court-ordered to pay for "moral damages" inflicted on the city's first lady, Gisele Fontes, according tol Diário de Cuiabá.
Prosecutor Ricardo Bejarano was taken off the investigation of TV journalist William Parra, just days after Bejarano had sought an arrest warrant for the Colombian reporter, accusing him of links to guerrillas, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The prosecution of Bolivia has sued three journalists for "using the media to induce people to commit crimes," stemming from a case of violence and racism against indigenous peasants in the city of Sucre on May 24, 2008, reported Erbol.
Victims and relatives of victims recognized through images published in newspapers and magazines and broadcast on television three officials from the Sao Paulo Civil Police accused of directly participating in acts of torture, sexual abuse, forced disappearances and murder during the military regime (1964-1985), according to the federal prosecutors office.
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) warned that the sentencing of Peruvian journalist Fernando Santos Rojas to one year in jail for aggravated defamation severely limits freedom of expression.
The vice president of Guatemala, Rafael Espada, tried to sue Marta Yolanda Díaz-Durán for libel, insult and defamation after she wrote a column published a year ago in the newspaper Siglo Veintiuno, but the Constitutional Court this week dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the journalist only expressed her opinion in the media, reported Cerigua.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez announced Tuesday, Aug. 24, that the country's lawyers will bring a lawsuit accusing Argentina's two largest newspapers, Clarín and La Nación, of illegally appropriating newsprint company Papel Prensa during the military dictatorship (1976-1983), reported the official news agency Télam, the Associated Press, and Agência Estado.