Ciudad Juárez is considered one of the most violent cities in the world but last week the city experienced, for the first time in history, a car bomb successfully attacking federal agents. Camerman Luis Hernández Núñez, from the television channel Telecinco, was injured as he recorded the moment of the explosion, reported El Universal.
La Jornada reports that both the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Against Freedom of Expression and the National Human Rights Commission (NCHR) are investigating the complaint of photojournalist Irineo Mujica Arzate, who is accusing agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM) of hitting him and stealing his equipment.
A Brazilian federal court ordered the federal government to pay more than $28,000 in "moral damages" to a freelance photographer who, 10 years ago, was physically and verbally assaulted by soldiers during an end-of-the-year party at the Copacabana fort in Rio de Janeiro.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) will investigate military agression against three journalists who covered a police operation in Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas, reported El Universal.
Journalist Rodrigo Santos, of Rádio Cidade in Brusque, Santa Catarina, was punched and kicked by an official of the Catarinense Soccer Federation (FCF), Delfim Peixoto Neto, reported Diário Catarinense. After the attack, Santos lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital.
The "bloodshed" continues, said Reporters Without Borders (RSF) after the killing in Mexico of Marco Aurelio Martínez Tijerina, in the state of Nuevo León, and Guillermo Alcaraz Trejo, of Chihuahua, in the northern part of the country. Their deaths bring the number of media workers killed in Mexico this year to at least 10, according to RSF.
Reporter Márcia Pache, of TV Centro Oeste, the affiliate of the channel Sistema Brasileño de Televisión (SBT) in Mato Grosso, filed another complaint against Councilman Lourivaldo Rodrigues de Moraes, of the city of Pontes e Lacerda, for continuing to intimidate her, reported Comunique-se.
The media suffering most from the killings of at least eight journalists this year in Mexico are those in the interior of the country who are essentially defenseless against the violence, reported the Inter Press Service (IPS).
Hugo Olivera Cartas was killed Tuesday morning after being shot three times. The body was found in a pickup truck on a road between the cities of Tepalcatepec and Aguililla in the western state of Michoacán, reports the news agency Quadratín, where the journalist worked. (See this Associated Press article in English.)
The attorney general’s office decided to restructure the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists, which will now focus specifically on crimes against media workers who are attacked for their profession, El Universal and EFE report.
In a letter to the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mexican President Felipe Calderón acknowledges a letter CPJ sent him a month ago about the increase in the number of cases of attacks and harassment by security forces against the press. The president said that the complaint was sent to the Attorney General's office, which will offer a response.
Journalist Márcia Pache, from TV Centro-Oeste, affiliate of SBT in Pontes e Lacerda, west of Cuiabá, was hit in the face on Monday, June 28, by Councilman Lorivaldo Rodrigues de Moraes (DEM), known as "Kirrarinha," according to the website Midia News.