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.
In the presence of UNESCO assistant director-general for communication and information, Frank La Rue, representatives from the three branches of government in Paraguay signed on Nov. 28 a Letter of Intent to Establish a Security Mechanism for Journalists in Paraguay.
Another journalist from Veracruz, Mexico has been killed, this time while under state protection.
In the face of threats from government officials and shortly after Juan Ramón Quintana, the Minister of the Presidency of Bolivia, labeled her as part of a “cartel of lies,” journalist Amalia Pando requested protection for her journalistic work before the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) through a precautionary measure, according to news agency EFE.
The security situation for the Colombian press seems to be getting worse in the midst of peace negotiations between the government and rebel groups in the country.
Jineth Bedoya Lima, the Colombian journalist who was kidnapped, tortured and subjected to sexual violence on May 25, 2000 by a paramilitary group in retaliation for her work as a journalist, formally returned the administrative reparations that the Colombian State awarded her as a victim of the armed conflict, according to newspaper El Espectador.