A Venezuelan journalist has received threatening messages via Twitter. Luis Carlos Díaz, Communication Networks Coordinator of the Gumilla Center, a Jesuit-run research institution, received a number of intimidating direct messages on Twitter. The...
CATEGORY: Americas
Actor del Castillo makes online request to drugs lord
Making the wrong commentary about the drug war in Mexico could create problems for public figures. Take the case of Kate del Castillo, a Mexican actor who incurred the wrath of many in the country after she tweeted that she preferred drug gang...
USA: Bradley Manning moves step closer to full court martial
Bradley Manning, the US solider accused of the largest intelligence breach in American history, is moving closer to the possibility of spending the rest of his life in military confinement.The presiding officer over Manning's pre-trial...
Honduras: “Journalism for life” demonstrator receives death threats
An independent journalist and human rights campaigner in Honduras has received several death threats following her involvement in a free expression march last month. Itsmania Pineda Platero was told "We’ll skin you alive, bitch!" in one of four...
Mexico: Journalist killed by armed gang
A Mexican journalist has been murdered by an armed gang during a high-speed car chase. Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino, from local weekly newspaper La Última Palabra, in Nuevo León, was killed as he tried to escape the bullets of an armed gang who were...
Tensions rise between Ecuadorian President and free expression watchdog
Tension has been escalating between the Organisation of American States' Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Special Rapporteur Catalina Botero has turned a watchful eye towards Ecuador, criticising...
Author of discredited vaccine-autism report sues for libel
The author of a discredited report linking autism to the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has filed a defamation suit against the British Medical Journal. Andrew Wakefield launched his libel case against three defendants in the United...
Cuba: Blogger appeals to Brazilian president for help to leave island
Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has appealed to Brazil's president to help her leave the Caribbean island. A strong critic of the country's Communist regime, Sánchez has been accused by authorities of conducting a "cyberwar" against the...
Brazil: Radio reporter shot dead
Brazilian radio reporter Laécio de Souza was shot dead by two men yesterday in Salvador, in the north east of the country. Police said the journalist, a local news reporter for radio station Sucesso FM, had been receiving threats on his mobile...
Peru: Mob vandalises newspaper office
The newsroom of a Peruvian newspaper was attacked by a mob in the early hours of Thursday morning (1 December). The offices of El Sol de los Andes in Huancayo were attacked following a series of reports in the paper linking criminal gangs to police...