Americas

The privately-owned Ecuadorian TV station Teleamazonas has just been told it is being fined 40 dollars for “broadcasting unverified information.” The notification came just a few weeks after it was fined 20 dollars on June 3 for “broadcasting a bullfight outside permitted viewing times.” The station, which is owned by banker Fidel Egas, could be shut down for 90 days if it receives a third...

The Associated Press is adopting a stringent social-networking policy for its employees, informing them to police their Facebook profiles “to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards," says a WIRED report. The policy comes weeks after an AP reporter, Richard Richtmyer, was reprimanded for posting a comment to his own Facebook profile criticizing the Sacramento-based...

The newspaper industry in North America will shed some $13 billion in revenue by 2013, Editor & Publisher has reported quoting new research from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC). The losses are expected to stem mainly from a drain in print advertising revenue. Total newspaper advertising will fall by a cumulative 32.7% during the next three years, according to the latest PriceWaterhouse Global...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned as “bogus” and “dishonest” technical and official explanations given by the Ministry of Transport and Communications for banning broadcasting by the radio station La Voz de Bagua Grande in the town of the same name in Peru’s north-west. Paris-based RSF called on the government, unhappy at the media’s support for recent indigenous peoples’...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the Ecuadorean government and National Council for Radio and Television (Conartel) to withdraw the latest administrative proceedings against the privately-owned national TV station Teleamazonas, which could force it off the air. The offensive comes amid a war of nerves between the station and President Rafael Correa, who has said he wants to “put an end”...

Four nonprofit groups devoted to investigative journalism will have their work distributed by the Associated Press (AP), the agency announced on Saturday. The New York Times reported: [ Link] Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1...

Five men have been detained in connection with the May 25 killing of Eliseo Barrón Hernández, a reporter and photographer for the local daily La Opinión in the northern Durango state in Mexico. "We are encouraged by the detention of these five men who are reportedly members of a drug cartel," said Carlos Lauría, senior programme coordinator for the Americas, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)...

The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged the Canadian and Australian governments to work for the immediate release of two freelance journalists who have been held captive in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since August. On Wednesday last, a woman claiming to be captive journalist Amanda Lindhout called the Canadian broadcaster CTV, saying she fears for her life and pleading for the government...

the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) has urged CRTC to allow Al Jazeera English Television to be broadcast in Canada. CJFE sent a letter in support of the application urging the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to approve ECGL's (Ethnic Channels Group Limited) request for the addition of Al Jazeera English to the lists of eligible satellite services...

Hernando Salas Rojas, director of the Curillo municipality's local television station, in Caquetá department, was murdered on May 20, delayed reports have said. According to sources consulted by Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) , unknown individuals burst into the journalist's home and fired several shots at him. Salas, who also previously worked in radio, was a community leader and the...