An Uruguayan journalist filed charges for torture he suffered during the 1973-1985 dictatorship in the South American country, according to reports from El Comercio on Nov. 11.
Uruguay's state-run telecommunications company, Antel, denied journalist David Rabinovich information about its marketing expenses, despite a 2010 access to public information law.
After publishing a story on drug dealing in an Uruguayan prison, La República newspaper reporter Víctor Carrato received emailed threats, Montevideo Portal reports.
A journalist investigating human rights violations committed during the Uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1985) received a “veiled threat” Feb. 7, when his personal information was published on Facebook, La República reports.
Peruvian writer and journalist Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature, defended the importance of “free journalism” and stressed the role of the Latin American press in helping diminish the “horrors of the authoritarian past” and supporting the consolidation of democracy, AFP and El Nuevo Diario report.
A panel of experts charged with developing a new broadcast law in Uruguay has submitted its final report to the industry minister and will be presented to President José Mujica in the second half of 2011, El País newspaper and the Prensa Latina news agency report.
Uruguay's president, José Mujica, said he is tired of being asked about the possibility of a potential law regulating the press. In an interivew published by the Argentine newspaper La Nación, the president said he had not received any proposals for such a law, and that if he did, he would throw them in the trash.
President José Mujica accused the Argentine and Uruguayan press of manipulating his statements, after he generated an uproar for calling Argentina “a country cut in two” by polarization, after attending the wake of former President Néstor Kirchner.
One the eve of the country’s Day of the Journalist, celebrated Oct. 23, President José Mujica said the press is “an absolutely necessary and indispensable evil” that shouldn’t be “tinkered” with, El País reports.
President José Mujica told the Brazilian magazine Veja that rulers shouldn’t respond to criticism from the press, because “if you respond you lose twice,” EFE reports.
Almost two years after the enactment of the Law on Access to Public Information (Law 18.381) in Uruguay, the administration has published a decree regulating its use. To incite journalists from throughout the country to take advantage of the law, the Archives and Access to Public Information Center launched this week a campaign, “Make Your Own Request.”
An internal government document classifies journalists as “acceptable” or not depending on their ideology and recommends ways of punishing “unacceptable” journalists, for example, by delaying press releases, the Associated Press reports. The Uruguayan Press Association said the two-year old document, which was publicized last week, is reminiscent of tactics used during the country’s military dictatorship.