Costa Rica’s highest court temporarily suspended the controversial Information Crimes Law that could send journalists and other individuals to prison for up to eight years for revealing government secrets, reported the newspaper La Nación on Saturday, Nov. 24.
Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, proposed increasing "democratic controls" over information to transition freedom of expression into a "function of the State" during a press conference on Monday, Nov. 19, according to the news agency EFE.
Students took to the streets in downtown San José, Costa Rica on Thursday Nov. 15, to protest the country’s recently enacted and much reviled information crimes law, reported the Tico Times website.
The state congress of Veracruz, Mexico is considering a bill to reform the Gulf state's penal code to punish offenders with one to four years in prison for disturbing public order by publishing fasle alarms regarding emergencies or violent acts, reported the website Animal Político.
After the vote was postponed four times because of a lack on consensus, the Internet Bill of Rights, a bill that establishes the rights and obligations of Internet users in Brazil, is back on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Controversy erupted when a member of the Federal Authority for Audiovisual Communication Services (AFSCA in Spanish), the organization responsible for implementing the Media Law, mentioned a possible attempt to control the editorial stances of media outlets in Argentina.
Despite opposition from journalism groups, the president of Costa Rica announced a new law would take effect punishing journalists and citizens with up to 10 years in prison for releasing "political secrets," according to the newspaper El País on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
The Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the lower legislative house, approved two cyber-crime laws and set a date for the vote on an Internet Bill of Rights, reported the magazine Época on Nov. 7.
The government of Uruguay ordered the closing of 74 community broadcasters for noncompliance with a law past last Nov. 1, reported the newspaper El País. According to the government, 20 of the broadcasters were proselytizing, added the newspaper.
The federal telecommunications commissioner in Mexico, Mony de Swaan, announced that it was possible to bid for two new television channels before 2015. That year is the deadline to transition television signals from analog to digital in Mexico, according to the news agency EFE.
Several Caribbean nations have pledged to reform their criminal defamation laws but must continue to work to fully repeal them, according to a new report published by the International Press Institute (IPI).
The Argentine Audiovisual Communication Services Law, also known as the Media Law, set to take effect Dec. 7, has caught the attention of press freedom organizations across the world.