Americas

Former police officers Odin Fernandes da Silva and Davi Liberato de Araújo were convicted for being part of the militia that abducted and tortured a team of journalists from O Dia newspaper in the Batan Favela area, Rio de Janeiro, in May 2008. Judge Alexandre Abrahão sentenced both individuals to 31 years in prison on August 12, according to Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo de Investigação...

U.S. immigration officials have released a Pakistani journalist who reports for Voice of America's Deewa Radio and whose home was destroyed by Taliban militants last month in northwestern Pakistan. Rahman Bunairee was freed Wednesday, more than one week after he arrived in the United States and was taken into custody at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, VOA reported. The Department...

There has been rapid progress in the investigation into an attack on 12 journalists employed by the Cadena Capriles press group in Venezuela capital Caracas on August 13. The employee of a parastatal foundation was arrested two days later and the prosecutor-general’s office said nine other people were being sought on the basis of statements by victims and video and photos taken during the attack...

A new wave of violence hit the media in Honduras last week, even as the country appeared to be farther than ever from resolving the crisis resulting from President Manuel Zelaya’s removal in a coup on June 28. “The de facto government has again illustrated its concept of press freedom by pitting soldiers and police against news media that are critical of the coup,” Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF)...

US immigration officials have detained without explanation Rahman Bunairee, a Pakistani reporter for Voice of America who said he had been targetted for attack in his home country. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on immigration officials to release Bunairee immediately and allow him to resume his work for the US government-funded broadcaster. Bunairee arrived...

Suspected government supporters attacked a dozen journalists in Venezuela on Thursday. The journalists were protesting an education bill that, they claimed, would restrict press freedom. Alleged government supporters hit and kicked the journalists, according to international news reports. At 2 p.m., several journalists from the Caracas-based dailies Últimas Noticias, El Mundo and Diario Líder...

CNN has asked cable operators in the US that carry its channel to block a commercial, produced by liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, which critiques CNN's Lou Dobbs, the New York Times has reported. CNN managers said in a morning staff meeting on Tuesday that the channel had invoked unspecified agreements with operators to stop the ad from running. The ad accuses Dobbs of “promoting the...

The Venezuelan government has withdrawn the licences of 34 radio and TV stations, 13 of which already stopped broadcasting earlier. When the authorities announced the withdrawal of 34 broadcast media licences on August 2, they warned that 200 other radio and TV stations could suffer the same fate. Diosdado Cabello, the minister who supervises the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel)...

A group of more than 30 armed pro-government activists riding motorcycles stormed the premises of private broadcaster Globovisión on Monday and set off tear gas, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local reports. A Caracas police agent suffered minor injuries during the 1 p.m. attack, Globovisión reported. No station employee was reported injured, and no extensive...

North Korea on Tuesday released two jailed American journalists after a visit from former US President Bill Clinton in the highest-level US contact with North Korea since Clinton was president nearly a decade ago, Reuters has reported. North Korea's KCNA news agency said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had issued a special pardon to the two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of US media outlet...