ARCHIVES: Americas
Unidentified gunmen in Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on Tuesday shot at journalist Luis Galdámez Álvarezn outside his home, the journalist himself told New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Galdámez was uninjured. Galdámez, a reporter for the national broadcaster Radio Globo and Globo TV, was going into his house in the neighborhood of Villa Centroamericana around 11:30 p.m. when unidentified gunmen hiding behind bushes fired at him at least eight times, he... MORE
Two photographers were shot by unidentified gunmen in a brazen attack Thursday afternoon in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, the New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. One photographer died, and the other was injured. Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, a photographer with the daily El Diario died around 2:45 p.m. after he and an unidentified colleague were shot by gunmen in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Ciudad Juárez, the local press said... MORE
The Pentagon has agreed to revise some of the rules that have restricted what journalists are free to report on from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, resolving a conflict that peaked in May when four reporters were expelled from the naval base there. The new rules contain three major changes: Journalists will no longer run the risk of being expelled or barred from Guantanamo because of information they report that was obtained in the course of news gathering outside Guantanamo. The Pentagon's public... MORE
Two journalism organisations in the US are joining forces to promote stronger international news coverage. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University said Tuesday that it is forming a partnership with the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting to support international reporting initiatives. The collaboration will include a special focus on global health coverage. Journalists from the Washington, DC-based Pulitzer Centre will also come to Harvard to discuss underreported... MORE
A year has gone by since Christian Poveda, a French photojournalist, documentary filmmaker and politically-committed observer, was shot dead in a San Salvador suburb on September 2, 2009, probably by members of a local gang. His death has deprived his profession of one of its best-informed specialists in Central America, a region often ignored by the international press. After covering the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1970s and 80s, Poveda returned to El Salvador during the... MORE
Barely 30 hours after an attack by armed assailants on the Noroeste newspaper building in Mazatlán, the newspaper has received a new threat from an unidentified caller demanding that it pay approximately US$15,000 in exchange for not "blowing up" its offices, the Centre for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET) has reported. Directors at Noroeste said that at around 10:40 a.m. on September 2, a person called the offices and demanded that the newspaper pay the money by 3:00 p.m. that afternoon... MORE
There has a new surge in cases of harassment and censorship of Honduran journalists working for radio stations that have been outspoken in their criticism of the government since the June 2009 coup d'état, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Radio Uno, an educational station in the northern city of San Pedro Sula that has repeatedly criticised the regime, was forced off the air by an act of sabotage on the night of August 30. It has since been able to... MORE
A Twitter experiment that went awry has landed a sportswriter for the Washington Post with a one-month suspension. Mike Wise, a respected Post columnist, was suspended by the newspaper on Tuesday, a day after he posted a fake report on his Twitter account. "Roethlisberger will get five games, I'm told," Wise wrote on his Twitter feed, @MikeWiseguy, on Monday in a reference to the length of the suspension handed down to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. In fact, Roethlisberger'... MORE
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has criticiced a decision by Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to send a bill to Congress that would make the production, distribution and sale of newsprint a matter of "public interest," calling the action "unconstitutional" and an attempt to "control the media." In a nationwide broadcast Tuesday last, Kirchner delivered the contents of a report, titled "Papel Prensa: The Truth", about the paper manufacturer that is owned by the government along... MORE
A government accusation that an Ecuadoran journalist "committed terrorism" is being described as retaliation for his harsh criticism of local authorities. On July 19, an unidentified individual tossed a tear gas canister to disperse a crowd during a visit of President Rafael Correa in the northern town of La Concordia, the Guayaquil-based newspaper El Universo reported. Gas reached the stage where Correa was standing, and the president covered his face with a mask. Juan Alcívar Ríos, a... MORE
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