The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has said several existing and proposed laws in Bolivia could reduce press freedom in the country.
Bolivian media outlets are applauding President Evo Morales’s plans to change a law that severely restricted coverage of judiciary elections, Bolivia’s National Press Association (ANP) reports via IFEX.
Fernando Collor de Mello, an impeached ex president and current senator, has once again ruined the government’s plan to quickly pass a law regulating access to classified documents, iG reports.
Keeping with the domestic and international trend, the UOL news site has released a set of guidelines for social media usage by its journalists, Liberdade Digital reports.
Nearly two years after the requirement to hold a media-related degree to practice journalism was declared unconstitutional by the Brazilian Supreme Court, bills supporting the reinstatement of the requirement are advancing in legislatures nationwide.
The votes still are being counted, but Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has claimed victory in a nationwide vote on 10 issues ranging from a bullfighting ban to the creation of a panel to regulate media content, CNN reports. Both the government and the opposition have suggested that there were irregularities during in the Saturday, May 7, vote, local media outlets report.
In a talk to commemorate World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Brazil’s UNESCO representative, Vincent Defourny, called for the passage of a stalled public information access law, G1 reports.
Against the expectations of Brazil's President Dilma Roussef, the proposed information access law will not be approved Tuesday, May 3, World Press Freedom Day, as originally anticipated. Former president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 and is a current senator for the center-right Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), halted the information access bill, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
With less than a week left before a popular vote on judicial reforms and press regulation, President Rafael Correa continued to rail against the media, saying they “deceive, lie,” and are the biggest opposition to the referendum, AFP reports.
In a joint session on April 19, the Human Rights and Science and Technology committees passed an information access bill, which ends the state of indefinite secrecy for public records, the Agência Senado reports.
The Parliamentary Front for Freedom of Expression and the Right to Communication with Popular Participation was launched by Brazilian lawmakers on April 19, Agência Câmara dos Deputados reports.
Renowned Brazilian journalist Fernando Rodrigues, who has worked as a reporter, editor, foreign correspondent, and columnist and was a Nieman Fellow in 2007, has been instrumental in the push for Brazil to finally adopt a freedom of information law. The president of the Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism (Abraji), which is one of the world's top investigative groups, Rodrigues also played a key role in the 2004 launch of the Forum for the Right to Access Public Information. Due in part to years of Rodrigues' tireless efforts campaigning for freedom of information, Brazil finally is poised to enact a p