Guatemala / Americas

  
A man waves a Guatemalan national flag during a protest in Guatemala City. The country is due to hold presidential and congressional elections in June. (AP/Moises Castillo, File)

Guatemala elections 2019: Journalist safety kit

Guatemala is scheduled to hold presidential and congressional elections on June 16. The Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas reported increased violence against the press during the country’s 2015 elections. Journalists have told CPJ they are being attacked and harassed, especially online, over their coverage of corruption, or reports on President Jimmy Morales and…

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A man reads a newspaper in Guatemala City on October 26, 2015. A Guatemalan judge on July 17, 2018, approved a court order barring journalist José Rubén Zamora and his newspaper, elPeriódico, from writing about a government official for three months under a law created to prevent violence against women. (AFP/Johan Ordonez)

Guatemalan minister uses law preventing violence against women to silence critical journalist

A Guatemalan judge on July 17, 2018, approved a court order allowing a government official to sue journalist José Rubén Zamora for psychological violence and discrimination, and barring Zamora from writing about the official under a law created to prevent violence against women, according to a CPJ phone interview with Zamora on July 19, 2018,…

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People gather at Constitution Square in downtown Guatemala City, Guatemala in August 2015. The bodies of two journalists, Laurent Ángel Castillo Cifuentes and Luis Alfredo de León Miranda, were found in a field outside the town of Santo Domingo, in Guatemala's southwestern Suchitepéquez deportment on February 1, 2018. (Reuters/Jose Cabezas)

Journalist, radio worker found dead in Guatemala

New York, February 7, 2017–Guatemalan authorities should conduct a swift and credible investigation into the murders of a newspaper journalist and radio station worker, establish motives, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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A man waves a Guatemalan flag in Guatemala City, Guatemala on September 14, 2017. (Reuters/Luis Echeverria)

Guatemala arrests lawmaker accused of plotting 2 journalists’ murders

New York, January 16, 2018–The arrest of a lawmaker accused of plotting the murders of two journalists in 2015 is an important step against impunity in Guatemala, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Guatemalan authorities arrested Congressman Julio Juárez Ramírez, who allegedly ordered the attack that killed Danilo López and Federico Salazar, near his…

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CPJ calls on Guatemala’s attorney general to release immediately and drop all charges against Jerson Antonio Xitumul Morales

CPJ calls on Guatemala’s attorney general to release immediately and drop all charges against Jerson Antonio Xitumul Morales, a journalist currently detained in the province of Izabal.

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Journalists and protesters hold placards outside an Istanbul court on October 31, 2017, calling for the release of jailed colleagues, including Turkish reporter Ahmet Şık. Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in 2017. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Record number of journalists jailed as Turkey, China, Egypt pay scant price for repression

For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers–Turkey, China, and Egypt–into improving the bleak climate for press freedom. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser

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Children play in the Izabal Lake in Guatemala in this photograph from August 2002. Local police on November 11, 2017, arrested Jerson Antonio Xitumul Morales, a reporter with the independent digital media outlet Prensa Comunitaria, after he reported on a local fishermen guild's protests in the Izabal province. (AP/Jaime Puebla)

Guatemalan journalist imprisoned after covering protests

New York, November 17, 2017–Guatemalan authorities should immediately release community reporter Jerson Antonio Xitumul Morales and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Guatemalans remember those killed in the country's 36-year civil conflict in Guatemala City, February 25, 2016. (Reuters/Josue Decavele)

Guatemalan journalist faces threats, intimidation

New York, June 30, 2017–Guatemalan authorities should thoroughly investigate the threats against journalist Marielos Monzón, an investigative reporter and contributor to the newspaper Prensa Libre, and should ensure her safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Guatemalan TV journalist survives gunshot to head

Two unidentified gunmen on June 14, 2017, shot Carlos Danilo Rodríguez Ixtecox, the owner and director of the local TV channel Multiviral Canal 19, in a small grocery store his family owns in Puerto Barrios, on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast.

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Officials inspect a crime scene in Guatemala City in 2013. High rates of street crime and violence make it hard to determine if victims are targeted for their work as journalists. (AFP/Johan Ordonez)

Searching for answers in murder cases amid violence and corruption in Guatemala

On June 25, unidentified assailants shot and killed Álvaro Aceituno López, director of Radio Ilusión in Coatepeque, a town in southeastern Guatemala. López often criticized local government officials when presenting the news and during guest appearances on other programs. But to date, CPJ has been unable to determine if Aceituno was killed for his work…

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