A police officer investigating a journalist’s murder was shot dead on Saturday by two men on a motorcycle in Ponta Porã on the Brazil-Paraguay border. Paulo César Santos Magalhães, who was part of a special unit fighting organised crime, was...
CATEGORY: Americas
Satirical viral video removed after political panic
In Mexico, a video showing child actors acting as corrupt politicians, drug traffickers and police on the take has gone viral. Uploaded on You Tube on 9 April, the film clip had reached more than 1 million viewers by the weekend of 15 April. But...
Wiretapping in Mexico: A threat to free expression?
Wiretapping has become so fashionable in Mexico that it could pose a problem for freedom of expression. The latest victim of this type of espionage was presidential candidate Josefina Vasquez Mota, of the ruling National Political Action Party...
Mexico: TV network faces bomb attack
National Mexican television network Televisa, based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, suffered a bomb attack on 25 March. No one was injured in the blast, which occurred in the wake of two other attacks in the same part of northern Mexico. On 19...
Brazil: Two journalists murdered
Two Brazilian journalists were murdered near the Paraguayan border over the weekend. Onei de Moura, owner of weekly newspaper Costa Oeste was shot and killed in Santa Helena by a man he had allegedly argued with earlier in the day. The suspected...
Venezuela: Chavez accuses press of “media terrorism”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accused the press of "media terrorism" during a Ministers Council meeting this week, following reports on contamination of drinking water in the central region of the country. Chavez attributed the stories to an...
El Salvador: Online newspaper faces government criticism
Last week, the online newspaper El Faro ran a story on how the Salvadoran government negotiated a truce with criminal gangs, known as "maras", just before recent midterm elections. According to El Faro, the recent transfer of dangerous gang...
Bolivia: Journalist sentenced to prison for defamation
A Bolivian journalist has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison on charges of "defamation, libel and spreading insults". Rogelio Peláez, editor of monthly publication Larga Vista, reported that a lawyer who was representing retired...
Brazilian journalist abducted by armed kidnappers
Journalist Milton Alves Jr. was reportedly abducted on 7 March in Aracaju, capital of the Brazilian state of Sergipe. After placing a hood over his head, Alves's Alves's kidnappers took him for a drive in his own car. He told police that a gun was...
Honduras: 18th journalist killed since 2010
A radio broadcaster has been killed in Sabá, northern Honduras, making him the 18th journalist to be killed in the country since 2010. Fausto Elio Hernández, host of The Voice of the News programme broadcast on local station Radio Alegre, was...
