The sons of two Mexican journalists were shot and killed during an armed attack in Chihuhaua City early morning Sunday, news agency EFE reported.
With six countries listed without a free press, including three countries with some of the highest levels of impunity in the world for press crimes, Latin American freedom of expression is at its lowest levels since 1989.
The state police of Coahuila, Mexico have begun the search for journalist Gerardo Padilla Blanquet, reported missing on April 30 2013 in Saltillo.
At least seven journalists belonging to different outlets were wounded by rubber bullets fired by the Metropolitan Police of Buenos Aires at a protest on April 26 2013.
On April 28, 2012, the news spread by word of mouth through a shocked community. Regina Martínez Pérez, correspondent for Proceso magazine, was found dead in her house in Xalapa, Veracruz.
Carlos Manuel Artaza, a journalist in Paraguay was shot five times and killed on Thursday April 25 in Pedro Juan Caballero city, near the capital of Asunción, where he was hospitalized, reported newspaper ABC Color.
In an open letter, NGOs have warned the president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, of a possible plan to kidnap a journalist in the state of Veracruz. In the letter, the International Press Institute (IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) urged Mexican authorities to investigate the situation and take necessary measures to guarantee the journalist’s safety.
On Friday, April 19, the chief of police in Minas Gerais confirmed the participation of police officers in the killing of two journalists in Vale do Aço, reported the website R7. Members of the civil and military police are under investigation for the killings.
Facing the possibility that three more cases of killed journalists might expire this year, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, FLIP, demanded that Colombia's Attorney General take all the necessary steps to bring the cases to justice, said the organization in a statement.
A police reporter in the notoriously dangerous state of Veracruz, Mexico, has been missing for 60 days, denounced Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French).
A photojournalist was shot to death on Sunday evening, April 14, in the city of Coronel Fabriciano, Minas Gerais, reported Estado de Minas. Walgney Assis Carvalho, 43 years old, was a freelancer for the newspaper Vale do Aço, the same publication where slain reporter Rodrigo Neto worked. Both worked the police beat and were known for denouncing crimes involving law enforcement. This is the fourth case of a journalist killed in Brazil so far in 2013.
A Mexican court sentenced the confessed killer of journalist Regina Martínez Pérez to 38 years and two months in prison, reported the newspaper El Universal. The court also ordered Jorge Antonio Hernández "El Silva" to pay $8,000 in reparations for the murder and aggrevated robbery, the newspaper added.