The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court of Panama rejected an appeal filed by two journalists and an editorial group against an earlier decision concerning a civil lawsuit filed by a former Supreme Court justice, according to La Prensa.
Six years after the 'chuzadas', or illegal wiretapping, of journalists in Colombia scandalized the country, their ghosts reappeared. In recent weeks, information about alleged corruption and abuse within the National Police has been revealed, including the monitoring and unlawful interception of journalists’ communications.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court said that a recent ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to restore the license of RCTV was “unenforceable.” The decision of the I/A Court in the Case of Granier and et al. (Radio Caracas Television) vs. Venezuela, considered that the State of Venezuela violated the rights to freedom of expression and due process of managers, journalists and other employees of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), and ordered the State to restore the channel’s signal and compensate the victims for damages.
Mexican federal court repealed a recurso de amparo, an action to protect an individual’s constitutional rights, launched by journalist Carmen Aristegui after she was dismissed from the MVS radio group. The action was done in order for Aristegui to return to work on the MVS news program First Issue (Primera Emisión).
In Brazil, a country with a history of impunity concerning crimes against journalists, a man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the 2013 murder of journalist Rodrigo Neto, reporter for newspaper Vale do Aço, in Minas Gerais.
The Association of Journalists of Chile (Colegio de Periodistas de Chile) has called for a change to Chilean law concerning freedom of expression in light of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld a sentence of 18 months in prison for defamation (injurias) for the directors of weekly publication El Ciudadano.
In the latest development of the ongoing fight between Ecuador’s media regulatory agency and newspaper El Universo, the news organization has been fined an amount equal to 10 percent of the newspaper’s average monthly revenue over the previous quarter (about US$ 350,000) for alleged noncompliance with government orders.
Accompanied by a group of people wearing shirts with the slogan "I'm Bonil," a replica of the French "Je suis Charlie," Xavier Bonilla 'Bonil', cartoonist of the newspaper El Universo in Ecuador, presented himself before the Superintendent of Information and Communication (Supercom) last Feb. 9, according to the Ecuadorian publication Plan V.
After being sentenced to seven months in prison for writing a fictional essay, journalist Cristian Góes has been ordered to pay 30 thousand Brazilian Reals (US$11,300) in compensation for moral damages to judge Edson Ulisses, vice president of the Sergipe Justice Tribunal.
Charges of espionage that could result in a 30-year jail sentence were brought against two journalists of the Bolivian newspaper La Razón for publishing alleged state secrets leaked to a reporter by an anonymous source.
Honduran journalist Julio Ernesto Alvarado, from television channel Globo TV, was sentenced to 16 months of prison for defaming Belinda Flores Mendoza, dean of the School of Economic Sciences at the Autonomous University of Honduras.
A criminal court in Honduras convicted three men accused of killing Honduran journalist Alfredo Villatoro in 2012, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) informed.