Americas

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has commended the US Senate judiciary committee for successfully pushing forward the new Federal Shield Law Bill. In a 14-5 decision, members of the committee voted to send the bill to the full Senate, all the while defeating several amendments that would have diluted the extent of its reach. “This is a fairly good news for the journalism world in the United States"...

No ransom demand. No news at all. The official investigation has not progressed in the month since María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, a young journalist employed by the Diario de Zamora and Cambio de Michoacán newspapers in the southwestern state of Michoacán, disappeared on November 11. Nonetheless, there are reasons for thinking her disappearance was linked to her reporting and that drug traffickers...

A court in the Amazonian state of Acre released Antônio Muniz, a local TV commentator and columnist for the daily newspaper O Rio Branco, on December 4, two days after he was jailed in connection with a 2002 conviction on a charge of defaming a senator. “The court’s decision was necessary because press offences have been decriminalised,” Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) said. “We are...

The Chadian government has been harassing the new, privately-owned weekly La Voix. On November 28, one of its reporters was verbally abused by the interior minister and then detained for several hours while, on December 3, a court is due to rule on a government complaint challenging its legality, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. While covering the installation of a new police director...

The body of José Galindo Robles, the head of Radio Universidad de Guadalajara, was discovered at his home in Guadalajara, in the western state of Jalisco, on November 24, after it was noticed that several days had gone by with no word from him, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. His body was found wrapped in a blanket and with the hands tied with cable. The prosecutor’s office said the...

A Mexican reporter who had recently covered corruption and organized crime was reported missing this week in the western state of Michoacán, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, was last seen on November 11 near her home in Zamora. CPJ called on state and federal authorities to do everything in their power...

Crime reporter Bladimir Antuna García was found murdered Monday night, according local news reports, after reportedly being abducted from a street in the Mexican city of Durango that morning. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Mexican authorities to show their commitment to press freedom and the protection of Mexican journalists by immediately bringing all those...

Colombian journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, who is under an interior ministry protection programme for journalists, is being harassed and intimidated by the intelligence services, who obtained information about her from her alleged protectors, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Duque, of Radio Nizkor, is about to present a file to the authorities exposing the persecution she has...

Prominent radio journalist Herbin Hoyos Medina left Colombia on Monday after authorities uncovered a supposed plot to kill him, according to local news reports. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern about the threats against Hoyos and urges authorities to continue to provide protection and ensure that the journalist can return to Colombia and work without...

A court in the western Venezuela state of Táchira has ordered that journalist Gustavo Azócar should remain in custody despite ordering the annulment of a criminal case against him, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). He is the only journalist currently in prison in Venezuela. Reporters Without Borders said it feared that the journalist was being hounded for his critical stance towards...