After the recent killing of Mexican journalist Regina Martínez, from the news-magazine Proceso, the Mexican House unanimously approved the Law for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists on Monday, April 30, reported CNN México. The bill mandates that Mexican authorities provide protection for threatened journalists and was already approved last week by the Senate. Now all that is left is for the president of Mexico to put the law into effect.
Less than 15 percent of the world's population lives in a country with a full free press -- the lowest level in more than a decade, according to Freedom House's new report, Freedom of the Press 2012, released Tuesday, May 1. The global press freedom rankings were released to coincide with the May 3 celebration of World Press Freedom Day.
The Bolivian government approved a decree requiring media owners to guarantee transportation at night for journalists and other press workers, reported radio station FM Bolivia. The door-to-door transport is supposed to run from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
A coalition of 29 news outlets and organizations has filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals asking the court to uphold a lower-court's decision blocking prosecutors from forcing New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his sources, reported Politico. The amicus brief, filed on behalf of the news groups on Tuesday, Feb. 21, argues that "the confidentiality of journalists’ communications with their sources has been vital to ensuring that the press effectively performs its constitutionally protected role of disseminating information to the public."
After police in Trinidad and Tobago raided the office of the Newsday newspaper and the home of reporter Andre Bagoo on Thursday, Feb. 9, the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) is calling for police to apologize and return Bagoo's hard drive and personal computers, reported the Trinidad Express.
On Thursday, Dec. 1, WikiLeaks published its latest document trove: more than 287 files related to 160 intelligence contracting companies in 25 countries that "develop technologies to allow the tracking and monitoring of individuals by their mobile phones, email accounts and Internet browsing histories," reported AFP.
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."
A bill in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies would require media companies to provide life and disability insurance for journalists working in dangerous areas, Agência Câmara reports.
Journalist Cristina Guimarães, who, along with Tim Lopes, won the Esso Journalism Prize for the series "Drug Fair," accused Brazil's TV Globo of not adequately protecting Lopes, who was killed in 2002 after receiving threats from drug traffickers in Río de Janeiro, reported the newspaper Jornal do Brasil.
Emilio Gutiérrez, a Mexican journalist seeking asylum in the United States after fleeing the drug-related violence in the northern region of the country, has petitioned the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) to investigate and rule on the inability of the Mexican government to protect the rights of journalists who have been threatened by the military since President Felipe Calderón began his anti-drug war in 2006, reported El Diario in El Paso, Texas.