Bolivia

In a welcome development in Bolivia last month, a judge ruled that criminal charges of espionage, complicity and disclosure of state secrets against two journalists be dropped and the case be moved to the country’s Press Tribunal. On May 7, Ricardo Aguilar, a journalist with the Bolivian daily La Razón, and Claudia Benavente, the newspaper’s editor in chief, were called to testify at a court...

A Bolivian judge earlier this month ordered a journalist and editor in chief to reveal the sources behind a recent investigative article, despite provisions guaranteeing source confidentiality in the country’s press law. “A source has never been revealed in this country,” said Juan León Cornejo, president of the National Press Association (ANP). “We would not know what to do if this were...

The body David Niño de Guzmán, a journalist who had been missing since April 19, was found april 22 in La Paz. An explosive charge was apparently used to kill him. Residents in the area where the body was found heard an explosion in the early hours of the morning after he disappeared, the police chief said, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Niño was the...

The bolivian law against racism was approved by the senate on October 8 and was immediately promulgated by President Evo Morales. The senate adopted the lower house’s version of the law without any changes despite major protests by media and journalists’ organisations against two articles that make it an offence for the press to publish racist comments or statements that incite racism, according...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 27 November 2007, supporters of a regional prefect who oppose the national government threatened journalists of the radio stations Digital and Pando for reporting negatively about the regional strike they organized, which began that day in the town of Cobija, northern Bolivia, according to information provided by the Governmental News Agency (Agencia Gubernamental de Noticia, ABI)...

As Bolivia undergoes massive political changes, its media is also going through tumultuous times. Bolivia's unstable political situation, widespread civil unrest, and weak rule of law present serious long-term threats to journalists amid the broader perspective of human rights. Observers see Bolivia’s current situation as a make or break situation for the Bolivian media, who seem to be the...