Americas

An Argentine radio station political commentator has been fired allegedly motivated by pressure from the Cristina Kirchner government over a controversy unleashed in the country's news media. Journalist Nelson Castro had signed a contract to host the program "Puntos de vista" (Points of View), aired by Radio del Plata radio station, through to the end of 2009, but it was cancelled after he...

Four hostages released last weekend by Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) said at a press conference recently that the leftist guerrilla group had declared the Colombian media a "military target," according to Colombian and international news reports. The statement stirred a heated debate among Colombian journalists over coverage of guerrilla groups, the Committee to Protect...

The Nicaraguan attorney-general's office has dropped a criminal investigation into a nonprofit journalism organisation headed by the prominent editor Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported on its blog. A remarkable number of media groups and individuals, including CPJ, spoke out against the investigation as...

Bolivian President Evo Morales launched a state-run daily newspaper on Thursday, hoping to strike back against what he calls media bias three days before the country votes on his new constitution, Reuters reported. The paper, published with color photos on high-quality newsprint, is called Cambio, or "Change." Its slogan is "The truth will liberate us." The first issue hit newsstands on the three...

Francisco Farinango, a journalist on indigenous community radio, Inti Pacha, who was arrested during protests against a new mining law in the Pichincha region, northern Ecuador on January 20, was released the next day but still faces charges of “rebellion” along with two other community members arrested with him. “Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) welcomes the release of the journalist but once...

A Colombian judge has sentenced a former mayor to 28 years in prison for ordering the April 2003 killing of a journalist who had repeatedly denounced the politician as corrupt. The convictions of three former public officials on charges of plotting the murder of Colombian radio commentator José Emeterio Rivas represent a historic step forward in the campaign to end impunity in the killings of...

Google plans to halt its Print Ads programme on February 28 because the initiative to help newspapers make more money in online advertising sales is not working. The programme, first announced in late 2006, was designed to help newspapers find more ways to make money from Internet ad sales at a time when their print ad sales were falling. "We weren't providing a meaningful revenue impact to our...

Miguel Badillo Cruz, editor of Contralínea and Fortuna magazines, was arrested by police near his home in Mexico City on the morning of January 16, the Centro de Periodismo y Etica Publica (CEPET) has reported. The editor has been charged with "insult to authorities" (desacato) by a judge in Jalisco state. He is currently under "administrative arrest", having apparently been detained on a warrant...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has demanded an explanation from the authorities about the reasons and circumstances of the arrest of community journalist Francisco Farinango in Ñaño Loma, in the Pichincha region of northern Ecuador. The reporter on Radio Intipacho was arrested January 20 with three other members of his Tupigachi community on the sidelines of nationwide demonstrations by...

A Venezuelan journalist who recently reported on drug trafficking and corruption was shot to death on Friday in Valencia, a city in the north-central province of Carabobo, according to news reports and interviews, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. A motorcycle-riding assailant shot Orel Sambrano, left, director of the local political weekly ABC de la Semana and Radio América...