Brazilian journalists and international journalism organizations are dismayed that Brazil, along with Cuba, Venezuela, India and Pakistan, decided to block a U.N. plan that would have promoted journalists' safety.
Through social networks, Brazilian military police discovered a plot to kidnap journalist José Luiz Datena, host of the television program "Urgent Brazil," on the night of Wednesday, March 28, according to a column written by journalist Flávio Ricco of UOL.
On Tuesday, March 27, in a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, journalist organizations called 2011 the worst year for the Venezuelan press because of the rise in attacks against reporters and news media, reported the AFP.
Venezuelan newspaper employees from La Prensa de Barinas must provide the Bolivarian Intelligence Service information related to various investigations initiated after corruption allegations were published in the newspaper, reported El Universal on Wednesday, March 28.
Authorities accused a Chilean radio journalist of inciting a "climate of violence" in the area of Aysén, Chile, where protests are frequent, according to a report from the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).
Representatives of the Salvadoran gangs MS-13 and Neighborhood 18 denied in a public statement that leaders of their groups made a deal with the government to lower their number of killings and crimes, as was published in the newspaper El Faro, reported ContraPunto.
Just seven months from the upcoming presidential elections in Venezuela, attacks against the press have intensified, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The Guatemalan press reported 33 assaults during 2011, an election year, up from 19 incidents in 2010, according to a report published on Thursday, March, 15, by the Journalist Observatory of the Cerigua Agency.
An article published Wednesday, March 14, in the digital newspaper El Faro of El Salvador has stirred up a firestorm of controversy and threats against the newspaper and its reporters, prompting journalists and free press organizations around the world to express concern and show solidarity with their Central American colleagues.
On Thursday, March, 15, a Venezuelan journalist was publicly threatened with kidnapping while broadcasting live for a TV and radio station in Anzoátegui, reported the news site Noticiasdeaquí.net.
On Sunday, March 11, the group La Piedrita (Little Stone) held a protest at the entrance of television station Globovisión, requesting the Venezuelan government investigate the death of two group members killed in an armed confrontation that occurred in a Caracas neighborhood on Saturday, reported the newspaper El Universo.
Journalist Nelson Bocaranda criticized a presumed plan to discredit journalists who comment on controversial political events that happen in Venezuela, reported the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) on Monday, March 12.