This article is part of the book, "Innovative Journalism in Latin America," published by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, with the help of Open Society Foundations' Program on Independent Journalism.
Metadata? Encryption? Backdoor? Tor Browser? VPN? PGP? When it comes to digital security for journalists, the amount of technical terms and acronyms can be scary. But tools to ensure online privacy can be crucial to protecting sources, which is why the site Privacidade para Jornalistas (Privacy for Journalists) has been launched in Brazil.
The recent signing of a resolution by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) is now part of the working arguments used by the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
In response to allegations of 23 journalists injured during police repression of social protests in Paraguay, the government of that country announced the coming adoption of a security protocol for journalists at risk.
May 26 marked 56 days of continuous protests against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, during which journalists face aggression from police, armed collectives and protesters alike.
Digital media sites are growing and many are becoming profitable — transforming, in every sense, the way journalism is made and consumed in Latin America. This was one of the most important findings of the study “Inflection Point,” that analyzed 100 digital media ventures from four Latin American countries, conducted by the organization SembraMedia with support from Omidyar Network.
Seven national and international journalists were assaulted and robbed of their belongings and work equipment allegedly by a local criminal gang in Guerrero, Mexico on May 13, several media outlets reported.
SIP Alert, a mobile phone app currently in its pilot phase, is an initiative developed by newspaper El Universal and TV Azteca of Grupo Salinas in Mexico, to be used by journalists from the 1,300 media outlets across Latin America affiliated with the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
2016 was a critical year for the exercise of journalism in the world, according to the annual reports of three international organizations that promote freedom of expression and the press.
Mexican daily newspaper Norte of Ciudad Juárez took down its website Norte Digital on the night of April 4, two days after publishing a farewell editorial in its last printed edition. Both the digital and print versions of the newspaper were closed by director, Óscar Cantú Murguía due to a lack of security for the practice of journalism in the country.
The Forum for Argentine Journalism (Fopea) recently presented the report Monitoring Freedom of Expression 2016, in which it recorded and analyzed the 65 direct attacks and aggressions the Argentine press suffered during the year.
Despite the fact that the security of journalists has become a matter of concern for international organizations such as the UN, which even proclaimed a day to encourage the fight against impunity in crimes against journalists, the statistics attacks against these professionals do not appear to be decreasing.