8 Jun 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Gang member Jonathan Martínez Castro was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a San Salvador court on 31 May for the murder of Canal 33 cameraman Alfredo Hurtado. Two gunmen shot Hurtado while he was visiting Ilopango, on the outskirts of the Salvadorian capital, on 25 April 2011. Hurtado had often covered gang member arrests, and it has been reported that the Mara Salvatrucha gang, of which Martínez Castro was a member, had suspected Hurtado had identified two of its members to the police as the murderers of another gangster. Martínez Castro’s alleged accomplice, Marlon Abrego Rivas, is currently a fugitive.
8 Jun 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Belarusian authorities assaulted and interrogated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Ina Studzinskaja while she was covering a meeting of opposition activists and local residents outside the capital Minsk last week. Studzinskaja, a correspondent with RFE/RL’s Belarusian Service Radio Svaboda, was detained by police and security agents for three hours on May 31 while on assignment in Svetlahorsk. She told RFE/RL that a policeman grabbed and twisted her arm, and she was then taken to a local police station, where she was interrogated. No charges were brought against the reporter.
8 Jun 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
The headquarters of Venezuelan newspaper Versión Final, in the city of Maracaibo, was shot at nine times on 3 June, making the attack the third of its kind against a media outlet in the northeastern state of Zulia. On 28 May, the headquarters of newspaper Qué Pasa was attacked by a grenade that damaged the front side of the building, although there were no casualties. The following day, the public television station in Catatumbo suffered an armed attack.
8 Jun 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A constitutional amendment was given final approval in Mexico yesterday [7 June] making attacks on the press a federal offence in Mexico. The amendment, passed by 16 state legislatures, allows federal authorities to investigate and punish crimes against journalists, persons or installations when the right to information or the right to expression is affected. Press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists heralded the “landmark legislation”, with the groups’s senior programme coordinator for the Americas, Carlos Lauría, deeming it a “first step to stop impunity in the killings of Mexican journalists.”
