The Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression initiated preliminary hearings in federal court for three individuals – two of them police officers – for their alleged role in attempting to kill a journalist, El Universal reports. For safety reasons, the journalist’s name has not been released.
A new report from the Fundación MEPI, an independent investigative journalism center, says that the regional press in Mexico cover less than 5 percent of killings, attacks and violence linked to organized crime in the country, and the silence imposed by the cartels has created "black holes of information."
The Chamber of Deputies passed a 2011 federal budget that includes more than $2 million for journalist life insurance, El Universal reports. The funds are set to go towards medical services, funeral costs, and damages.
Journalists in Central America aren't prepared to deal with covering the violence, organized crime and drug trafficking that is moving south from Mexico, said Carlos Dada, editor and founder of El Salvador's digital newspaper El Faro and winner of the 2010 Latin American Studies Association Media Award.
Líbero newspaper’s Gustavo Peralta accused several police officers of “abuse of authority and battery,” La República reports. According to the journalist, the officers broke his arm while he was covering a soccer game on Saturday, Nov. 13.
Several journalists were tear-gassed and beaten by security at a hotel in Cancún that was the site of a Sunday explosion that left seven dead and 18 wounded, La Crónica de Hoy and El Universal report.
An armed group stormed the offices of El Sur newspaper in Acapulco (SW Mexico) Wednesday night,( Nov. 10). They fired inside the building, but none of the 8-12 employees present was harmed, EFE and La Jornada report.
The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) have announced a joint summit focusing on violence against journalists working along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Police reporter Carlos Alberto Guajardo of Expreso newspaper died while covering a shootout between the Mexican military and criminal gangs in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, the Brownsville Herald reports.
Several journalist and freedom of expression organizations criticized the press protection measures used by the authorities, which they said lack the resources and scope to attack the problem at its roots, El Diario de Juárez reports.
Civil police are investigating the break-in and theft of computer and printing equipment at the newspaper Correio Mariliense, in the city of Marilia, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The newspaper said the crime showed signs of being a political attack to disrupt the newspaper's operations, but according to O Globo, police are investigating the case as a common robbery.
The Mexican authorities have presented a mechanism for protecting journalists to stop the attacks on reporters and the media that, in the last decade, have resulted in 65 killings, in addition to 12 disappearances in the past five years, reported CNN Mexico and La Jornada.