Honduras: lawyer murdered after police torture accusations

January 20th, 2012

Honduran lawyer Jose Ricardo Rosales was shot dead by three hooded gunmen on 17 January, three days after he was quoted in newspaper Diario Tiempo, accusing police officers in the northern town of Tela of torturing prisoners. The Honduras College of Lawyers claim that 74 lawyers have been killed in the past three years in the country.

Peru: Journalists sentenced to house arrest for defamation

September 28th, 2011

Two Peruvian journalists accused of defamation were last week sentenced to two years in prison, although on suspended sentences which involve house arrest and paying a civil fine of $11,000 USD. Fritz Du Bois, editor of the newspaper Perú 21, and Gessler Ojeda, Perú 21 correspondent in the city of Arequipa, were reportedly taken to court for publishing stories about supposed links between the family of legislator Ana María Solórzano and prostitution businesses in the southern city.

Ecuador: Seven radio stations face sanctions for airing free speech debate

September 15th, 2011

The Ecuadorian Telecommunications Superintendency has announced it would seek to punish seven radio broadcasters for a simultaneous broadcast of a debate on free speech without first notifying the authorities. On Ecuador’s Independence Day (10 August), Ecuadoradio, a broadcaster owned by the El Comercio group that publishes the eponymous newspaper, organised a debate between several radio broadcasters to discuss President Rafael Correa‘s proposed communications bill, which would limit business interests of media companies and promotes government regulation of such companies. On the same day, several major Ecuadorian newspapers ran the same cover, titled  “For Freedom of Expression”.

Honduras: Radio journalist murdered

September 12th, 2011

Medardo Flores, a Honduran radio journalist who supported former President Manuel Zelaya, was gunned down on the night of 8 September, joining the long list of journalists who have been killed since Zelaya’s forced exile from the country in a June 2009 coup. Regional finance manager of the pro-Zelaya Broad Front for Popular Resistance (FARP), Flores was shot just two days after another leading FARP figure, Emo Sadloo, was assassinated. Flores’ death brings the number of Honduran journalists killed in the past 18 months to 15.

Peru: TV journalist dies after attack by gunman

September 12th, 2011

Television journalist Pedro Alfonso Flores Silva died in hospital yesterday from gunshot wounds sustained in an attack on Tuesday. While riding home on his motorcycle, Flores Silva, 36, was intercepted by a taxi and shot in the abdomen by a hooded assailant. Flores Silva ran and hosted a news programme, “Visión Agraria”, during which he had made accusations of corruption against Marco Rivero Huertas, mayor of the Comandante Noel district. The journalist’s wife told reporters that her husband had received anonymous death threats for several months prior to his murder, which she believed stemmed from the accusations made in his programme.

Venezuela: Human rights commission accuses country of censoring press

September 6th, 2011

The Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has accused Venezuela of censoring the country’s media. IACHR criticised measures taken against satirical magazine 6to Poder, which was briefly censored for a cover portraying six government officials as cabaret dancers. The organisation released a statement saying that such instances “are against the regional standards for freedom of expression and create an intimidatory environment, encouraging self-censorship.” They also referred to a case against opposition politician Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, who was sentenced to two years in prison in July 2011 for “distributing false information“, having accused Hugo Chávez’s government of supporting drug trafficking.

Cuba: Correspondent’s press credentials revoked

September 6th, 2011

The Cuban government this weekend revoked the press credentials of journalist Mauricio Vicent, correspondent for Spanish newspaper El País. Cuban authorities said that Vicent, who has been a reporter on the island for twenty years, had portrayed a “biased and negative image” of Cuba. Since 2007, the Cuban government has prohibited reporting by foreign correspondents from the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and Mexico’s El Universal.

Mexico: Journalists found dead

September 2nd, 2011

The bodies of Marcela Yarce, the founder of a political magazine, and Rocio González, a freelance journalist, have been discovered by joggers in El Mirador park in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. The women’s necks showed strangulation marks and their hands were tied behind their backs, said a spokesman for Mexico City police. Authorities gave no motive for the killings. Yarce founded Contralinea magazine, and González was a freelancer and former reporter for the Televisa television network.