The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) in Colombia reported two recent aggressions against a journalist and a photographer by national police agents. These were added to the 57 attacks against the press registered during the first few months of 2014, of which 13, or 23 percent, were committed by police.
On Wednesday, March 26, four weeks after being kidnapped, beaten and threatened as a result of content published in a magazine he directed, Mexican journalist Gilberto Moreno Fontes took his own life in his home in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, according to news agency Proceso.
Ten days after the sudden resignation of the head of Mexico's Mechanism to Protect Journalists Juan Carlos Gutiérrez Contreras, members of the federal agency's independent advisory group revealed that more than half of the cases of threats and attacks against journalists that the Mechanism has received in the last two years haven't been reviewed yet, Animal Político reported.
A joint mission composed by members of several international and Mexican press freedom organizations reported on March 19 the results of their recent visit to Veracruz to investigate the killing of journalist Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, according to digital newspaper Terra.
Last week Brazil's Secretary of Human Rights Maria do Rosário announced new recommendations to protect journalists, which would include providing a Federal Police security detail to threatened journalists, reported news portal A Tarde.
On Sunday, March 16, unknown suspects broke into the Mexico City house of Darío Ramírez, regional director of the freedom of expression organization Article 19. They took his work documents and computers, according to the news site Animal Político.
Journalists covering the mass protests in Venezuela should consider wearing bulletproof vests, said Frank Smyth, senior advisor for journalism security for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a recent blog post.
International organizations are condemning the increased government harassment of two Honduran journalists, Julio Ernesto Alvarado and Dina Meza, in recent months.
Three reporters from the news network Noroeste were assaulted in the Mexican state of Sinaloa on Sunday, March 2, after municipal police attempted to disperse a protest supporting the recently captured drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, reported newspaper El Informador.
The National Union for Press Workers in Venezuela (SNTP in Spanish) accused the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) of detaining 41 persons, of whom at least two were foreign journalists who say they were beaten and robbed of their equipment during a protest on Friday, Feb. 28.
News organization Grupo Editorial Noroeste, from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, demanded on Feb. 25 protection from federal agencies for journalists who were threatened for reporting stories on recently arrested drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, reported Noroeste.
Two gunmen shot and killed Yonni Steven Caicedo, a 21-year-old Colombian cameraman for TV Noticias and Más Noticias, on Feb. 19 in the Comuna 12 section of the city of Buenaventura, according to the the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP).