Journalists covering police protests in the Amazon-region city of Porto Velho, Rondônia on May 7 and 8 were threatened and harassed by several demonstrating officers, Rondoniaovivo reports.
Approximately 40 journalists from different media outlets in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura walked out of their workplaces on May 9, 2011 to protest threats and violence faced by reporters in the region, El País reports.
César Lévano, director of the Peruvian newspaper La Primera, and Arturo Belaúnde, president of the same newspaper, received funeral wreaths in the midst of a tense presidential election campaign, according to La República.
Journalist Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco, who reported on land conflicts with ranchers and alleged corruption in the northwestern city of Morazán, became at least the 12th journalist killed in the past 18 months in Honduras, the Associated Press reports.
In Bolivia’s three largest cities, 92% of journalists say that freedom of expression is under threat in the county, according to May 8 survey of 200 journalists, FMBolivia reports.
Journalists at Radio Victoria in El Salvador received new death threats from an “extermination group” that has targeted the broadcaster since 2006, Prensa de Frente reports.
Valdir Cardoso, the Brazilian journalist responsible for the site O Jornal MS, is denouncing the way a judicial order to confiscate one of his videos was carried out, according to the digital newspaper Midiamax. The video in question is about a supposed corruption case involving government officials from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
On May 3, media workers all over Latin American used World Press Freedom Day to denounce violence against reporters and media outlets and to demand protection, as new reports showed that the region has become one the most dangerous in the world to practice journalism. Press Freedom Day was also marred by the news that two journalists, one in Brazil and another in Peru, were shot to death in separate incidents.
While activists worldwide celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the violent death of a Peruvian radio journalist that same day was a stark reminder of the dangers faced by media workers. La República reports that Julio César Castillo Narváez was shot to death in the city of Virú, 340 miles to the northeast of Lima.
A total of 68 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, while another 13 remain missing, says a new report by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), El Universal reports.
Mexico and Honduras have joined the rank of countries where the press is not considered free or independent, according to a Freedom House study released Monday, May 2, reported the Christian Science Monitor. In fact, the report, Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence, found that global press freedom has declined to its lowest levels in more than a decade, with Latin America experiencing the most severe setbacks. The report was released as part of World Press Freedom Day.
Colombian journalist Hollman Morris is certain the Harvard Nieman Fellowship has saved his life.