The Honduran National Congress is discussing the approval of a law that aims to regulate activity and content on the internet, and would obligate website administrators to do the same.
Given that new forms of communication –such as social networks, platforms and digital news sites, among others– pose new challenges to the exercise and defense of the right to freedom of expression, a recent study by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ) suggests reviewing the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System in that regard.
The Permanent Commission of the Peruvian Congress is evaluating a new bill that attempts to restrict state advertising only to national media and social networks. Private media would no longer receive state advertising.
The National Association of Bolivian Journalists (ANPB, for its initials in Spanish) and the Association of Journalists of La Paz (APLP) have declared an “emergency” in rejection of articles of the country’s new Penal Code the entities say could be used against professionals in retaliation for their work.
In a unanimous and unprecedented ruling in the country, the Supreme Court of Chile defended that the right to information overrides the right to be forgotten. The court decided in favor of the Center for Investigative Reporting, CIPER, against a doctor's request to remove a report about medical malpractice from CIPER's site.
Despite the approval of a new communications law in 2014, historic media concentration in the hands of a few economic groups persists in Uruguay, according to a recent investigation. A pending Jan. 1, 2019 deadline means these media companies have just over a year to adapt to the legislation.
After meeting with media associations and journalists in Bolivia, the leaders of the country's legislature decided to exclude press professionals from controversial Article 200 of the new Penal Code, which sanctions bad professional practice.
Media and journalism associations in Bolivia are on alert due to a proposal to reform the Penal Code that is under debate in the country's Congress. They claim that Article 200 of the new Code, which provides for sanctions against professional misconduct, poses a threat to press freedom by opening the door to the criminalization of journalists in that country.
Access to public information in Venezuela is a guarantee established in the country’s Constitution. However, in reality, if a journalist or citizen wants to know the salary of a public official or the amount of money spent during an electoral campaign, for example, the response in many cases will range from “we don’t know” to “we cannot respond.”
The Honduran Bar Association joined dozens of journalists who protested the morning of Aug. 16 outside the Supreme Court in Tegucigalpa to demand the repeal of Article 335-B of the Honduran Penal Code, which they consider to be contrary to freedom of expression.
When Ecuador approved the Organic Law of Communication (LOC for its acronym in Spanish) in 2013, different organizations inside and outside the country expressed concern about the negative effects that the standard could have on freedom of expression.
More than 100 countries in the world have a law in their national legislation that allows access to public information. Latin America is the region with developing countries that has advanced most in this respect, even surpassing certain aspects of the laws of European Union countries, according to the recent Unesco report, "Access to Information: Lessons from Latin America.”