Ana L. Urbina, a correspondent for channels 8 and 11, and five members of the Red Cross died when the ambulance and truck they were traveling in was swept away by the rain-swollen Tecolostote River in central Nicaragua, Boaco Department, El Nuevo Diario reports. (See EFE's report in English.)
In the middle of August, the newspaper La Prensa in Nicaragua said it was firing 23 delivery workers, but the Labor Ministry ordered their rehiring, which according to the newspaper — a strong opponent of President Daniel Ortega— is part of a “political persecution” trying to restrict freedoms of press and opinion.
Renowned journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro is among the winners of the 2010 Maria Moors Cabot Prize. The annual award recognizes excellence in coverage of Latin American and Carribean issues and is organized by the Journalism School at Columbia University.
Don’t expect relations between Hugo Chávez and the U.S. media to improve in 2010. Venezuela’s government long ago declared war on “media terrorism,” its term for news organizations that criticize Chávez from within and outside the country. Chávez recently slammed the U.S. magazine Newsweek for its predictions that in 2010 Chávez faces another coup and that his mentor Fidel Castro will die this year in Cuba.