The recently formed Paraguayan Alternative Media Network was put to the test during the general election this past April 30. The network seeks to give visibility to issues underreported by traditional media through collaborative journalism and fact-checking.
In view of the advance of organized crime over Paraguayan institutions and the almost total impunity in the cases of murdered journalists, freedom of expression organizations in that country will present in April a bill that contemplates the creation of individual, collective and psychosocial protection mechanisms for members of the press.
Faced with the racial and cultural biases that exist in artificial intelligence tools, journalists from Grupo Octubre (Argentina), El Surtidor (Paraguay) and GMA News (Philippines) created Image2Text, a computer vision platform that seeks to add context from the Global South to image recognition technology.
Media accelerator Velocidad shared lessons learned in 16 months of consulting, follow-up and financial support to ten news outlets in Latin America. During this time, these media organizations saw improvements in their organizational structure, audience loyalty, business model and product vision and culture.
The GNI Startups Lab Hispanoamérica program was created and launched in mid-2021 by Sembramedia, with the support of Google News Initiative, and its objective is to strengthen the structures and business models of 10 digital native media in Latin America.
In Paraguay, 19 journalists have been murdered in the last 30 years, but few cases have been solved. The Bureau for the Safety of Journalists in Paraguay calls for effective measures to protect and prevent crimes against journalists.
Survey of laws and bills that curb and punish disinformation and fake news on the Internet shows growth in Latin American countries. Experts warn of the risk of censorship and self-censorship of journalists.
Six media outlets from Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Venezuela and Chile will proceed to the second phase of the Velocidad independent media accelerator program.
On Sept. 16, Natalia Zuccolillo, the director of the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color, and journalist Juan Carlos Lezcano will go to trial and could be sentenced to prison and pay a $1.4 million fine – a move that has alarmed organizations and press freedom advocates.
Paraguayan correspondent Cándido Figueredo, who works in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, says the situation in the region is "very tense" after the murder of Brazilian journalist Lourenço Veras.