In light of the Argentinian supreme court’s ruling to uphold the country’s controversial media law, Ronaldo Pelli reports on the fight between governments and private media across Latin America
CATEGORY: Americas
PEN America survey: Mass surveillance causing self-censorship among writers
Sixty-six percent of American writers disapprove of their government’s collection of phone and internet data, according to a survey from the Pen American Center.
Honduran journalists use sensationalised crime reporting as a safety measure
Honduran journalists present the country’s spiralling crime without context to avoid being targeted by the powerful crime cartels that control the drug trade, Ana Arana and Daniela Guazo of Fundación MEPI write
Surveillance critic barred from US
Author Ilija Trojanow, a driving force behind an anti-surveillance campaign, was travelling to the US for a conference on German literature. That was his plan, anyway. At an airport in Brazil, he was told his entry to the US had been denied. No explanation was provided then, and none has been provided since, Milana Knezevic writes
Obama and Harper — Modes of Support for Fossil Fuel Development
The collision between climate science and energy politics, and threats to freedom of communication, are playing out differently in the United States and Canada, Rick Piltz, founder and director of Climate Science Watch, writes
ProPublica, This American Life and acetaminophen: $750,000 to state the obvious
ProPublica and This American Life, both which I love, are making some waves for a story highlighting the risks of taking too much acetaminophen. But Kevin Anderson asks why they spent over $750K to report on facts in plain view.
September–a deadly month for Mexican journalists
Four Mexican journalists were killed within a year of each other from 2008 to 2011, each in the month of September
The link that landed a journalist in jail and gagged the press
Josh Stearns of Free Press reports on journalist Barrett Brown who could face a 100-year prison term if he’s found guilty for linking to stolen information. He didn’t steal this information himself, nor did he post it online. He simply linked to it.
The US shield law’s dangerous precedent – and how to fix it
Josh Stearns of Free Press argues the proposed US press shield bill could be greatly strengthened and simplified by defining journalism as an act, a process that anyone can participate in, instead of a profession limited to a few practitioners.
From the archives: Behind the Sunglasses: Chile has done its best to forget its past
An excerpt from Exorcising Terror: the Incredible Unending Trial of General Augusto Pinochet by Chilean expatriate writer Ariel Dorfman