A Paraguayan journalist said he received a death threat from Senator Robert Acevedo, reported the newspaper ABC Color on Friday, March 2. The senator denied the accusations, saying that it was an attempt to cause him political harm, added ABC Color.
Brazilian journalist Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues was shot to death during an attack the night of Sunday, Feb. 12, in Ponta Porã in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul on the border with Paraguay, reported Última Hora. Police suspect it was a hired killing.
Brazilian police alerted a Paraguayan journalist of a plot to kill him, reported the newspaper Última Hora. The plot to kill Cándido Figueredo, correspondent for ABC Color in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, was discovered by Brazilian authorities after intercepting a telephone call.
After the prime suspect behind the conspiracy to kill a Paraguayan journalist was freed on Dec. 31, 2011, the crime's perpetrators are now soliciting their own release on Jan. 10, reported the newspaper Vanguardia.
The leader behind the guerrilla Paraguayan People's Army (EPP in Spanish), who is serving a prison sentence for kidnapping, told the newspaper La Nación in a tape-recorded interview that journalists would become military targets if they acted as "informants" for the government.
César Ferreira, Paraguayan journalist for Radio Yuty in the southern city of Caazapá, faces a new defamation charge after the local Court of Appeals ruled in his favor on the previous charge, reported the news site Cuarto Poder.
A judge absolved three Paraguayan journalists of defaming a lawyer, reported the newspaper La Nación.
Three journalists from TV station Canal 9 in Paraguay, and the ex-director of the National Television System (SNT in Spanish), Ismael Hadid, are on trial for defamation and libel, according to the newspaper ABC of Paraguay.
While violence against the press in Paraguay is nowhere near the levels found in Mexico, Honduras, or Colombia, journalists in the country have little support and face daily risks, especially those in border regions controlled by international smuggling gangs, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) writes in its report “Journalists alone facing trafficking."
"You cannot curtail the right of information and of the media to investigate," said judge Manuel Aguirre during the ruling issued Thursday, June 30. The judge argued that the role of the media is fundamental for democracy, explained ABC Digital.
Just as journalistic organizations in Ecuador and Paraguay are complaining about the use of laws against the press aimed at silencing journalistis, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) released a statement expressing concern about the "deterioration of freedom of expression and press freedom on the American continent," reported La Prensa.
Paraguayan journalist and radio announcer in Ciudad del Este, Carlos Bottino, has filed suit against the governor of Alto Paraná, Nelson Aguinagalde, accusing him of threatening the journalist with death, reported Última Hora.