In Veracruz, the Mexican state where nine journalists have been brutally killed in 18 months, state legislators approved the creation of the State Commission for the Care and Protection of Journalists, according to the newspaper El Universal.
Numerous journalists in Peru have been attacked in recent days. On Wednesday, July 4, police attacked at least five journalists who were covering the state of emergency declared in the region of Cajamarca.
Brazilian radio sports commentator Valério Luiz was shot and killed on the afternoon of Thursday, June 5, while leaving the building of the radio station Rádio Jornal 820 AM, where he worked, in Goiânia, reported the news portal R7.
The suspect that confessed to killing Brazilian journalist Décio Sá in April, Jhonathan Silva, narrated the details of the crime during its reconstruction organized by the Public Safety Secretariat of Maranhão on Tuesday, June 3, reported G1.
During the first six months of 2012, 72 journalists were killed worldwide, a 33 percent increase over the same period the year before, according to a report published on Monday, July 2, by the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC).
On Sunday, July 1, an Ecuadorian journalist was shot nine times and killed by two men on a motorcycle close to his house in the town of El Triunfo, about 38 miles from the coastal city of Guayaquil, reported the Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios.
Authorities in Veracruz, Mexico, said they arrested nine organized crime suspects, at least one of whom is suspected of killing Mexican reporter Víctor Báez Chino, according to Milenio, the newspaper for which Báez worked.
An intern for the Associated Press (AP) was found dead in Mexico City during the wee hours of Saturday, June 30, the AP reported.
Brazil's National Council of the Attorney General's office approved on June 26 a proposal with recommendations for investigations of crimes against journalists to be thorough, fast, and high-priority, reported the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.
The U.S. Department of State announced that it has started an investigation into the disappearance of a Mexican American journalist who has reportedly gone missing in Mexico, reported the Fox affiliate in San Antonio.
In less than two weeks, a third radio station was attacked with dynamite in Bolivia, in the southeastern city of Oruro, during the early morning hours on Tuesday, June 26, the Sole Union Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB in Spanish) reported, according to the Fide News Agency (ANF in Spanish).
Just one week from presidential elections in Mexico, a Mexican journalist was stabbed on Sunday, June 24, before entering his house in the city of Oaxaca, in the southeastern part of the country, reported the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET in Spanish).