Americas

An Associated Press (AP) reporter has been reprimanded for comments on his Facebook page, according to Wired News. Richard Richtmyer, a Philadelphia-based newsman, posted a comment on his Facebook profile late last month criticising the executive management of newspaper publisher McClatchy, whose stock plummeted following a 2006 acquisition of San Jose-based Knight Ridder. “It seems like the ones...

Hiram Oliveros Ortiz, an alleged participant in the assassination of La Mañana newspaper director Roberto Javier Mora García, was on June 3 sentenced to 16 years in prison by Judge José Alberto Ciprés Sánchez of the Second Bench Criminal Court in Nuevo Loredo, Tamaulipas state, northern Mexico, the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET) has reported. Oliveros Ortiz, who is being held at...

An intentionally-set fire completely destroyed the facilities of FM Radio Activa, in El Bolsón, Río Negro province, located on the border with Chile. The incident took place on June 1 around 10:30 p.m. (local time), half an hour after the last employee, an operator, had left the station, Foro de Periodismo Argentino (FOPEA) has reported. The El Bolsón public prosecutor, Francisco Arrien, told...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on Mexico's federal justice and defence ministries to investigate a June 4 incident in the northern city of Ciudad Juárez in which soldiers beat several journalists including photographer José Luis González of El Diario, a regional newspaper that suffered a great deal in 2008. In a separate development, one of El Diario’s bureaux has just had to close...

The opening of two government investigations into private television network Teleamazonas and threats of legal action by Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa against critical media outlets are an attempt by the government to stifle dissent, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. During his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Correa said that he would resort to legal action to "finish...

A reporter for the Tele Diario news show of Guatemala’s Channel 3 television was gunned down in the eastern city of Chiquimula, police said on Sunday, the Latin American Herald Tribune website has reported. Marco Antonio Estrada was killed after parking his motorcycle on an avenue in Chiquimula, located some 222 km (nearly 140 miles) east of Guatemala City, the National Civilian Police, or PNC...

A new website has been launched which promotes the concept of the "entrepreneurial journalist." Founded by a veteran of traditional media, Lewis Dvorkin, True/Slant wants its writers to be more than just a name and a mug shot. The name True/Slant is meant to convey the way news is delivered to the website's audience by knowledgeable and experienced contributors seeking the truth, while honestly...

President Hugo Chávez Frías is damaging Venezuelan democracy by continuing to threaten private media with reprisals and making unwarranted accusations against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has alleged. On Thursday, Chávez demanded that Attorney-General Luisa Ortega Díaz, Minister of Public Works and Housing Diosdado Cabello, and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice take action

Community radio station Radio Diversia, which is active on human rights issues connected to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community in Bogota, received threats recently from a group calling itself "La Organización", the Foundation for Press Freedom has reported. The harassment against the station began on April 30 when unknown individuals stole various computers from the station...

Lydia Cacho, a well-known Mexican journalist and human rights defender, is reportedly being followed by an unknown, armed man who has been seen outside her house on several occasions in the last few days. Cacho told London-based ARTICLE 19 that a blue and silver 2008 Chevrolet motor vehicle has been seen at different hours in front of her house. Witnesses have described the driver as a robust man...