Americas

  
Mexican investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui speaks to reporters in Mexico City, June 19, 2017. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)

Spyware targeted Mexican journalists and activists

Mexico City, June 20, 2017–Attempts to spy on Mexican journalists and human rights activists by infiltrating their mobile devices with spyware threaten press freedom in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A report released in Mexico City yesterday by the press freedom group Article 19 and open internet researchers R3D and the…

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A soldier destroys chemicals used in the production of cocaine in Ragondalia, in the remote Colombian state of Norte de Santander, November 22, 2006. Dutch journalists Derk Johannes Bolt and Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender were abducted in the state, police said yesterday.

Dutch journalists abducted in Colombia

Bogotá, Colombia, June 20, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the immediate release of two Dutch journalists who were abducted while reporting from a lawless region of northeastern Colombia.

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A car drives on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, September 29, 2017. A Dutch freelance journalist said Venezuelan security forces detained him on September 21, 2017 while he was on a reporting trip in the country's southern mining district. (Reuters/Ricardo Moraes)

Venezuela Country Safety Page

Updated November 9, 2017 As the political situation in Venezuela continues to deteriorate, journalists covering protests have been routinely targeted, harassed, attacked, and detained. To provide concrete safety information for local and international journalists covering the unrest, CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team is issuing periodic updates on the political situation and the climate for journalists.

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Óscar Martínez, pictured at CPJ's 2016 International Press Freedom Awards, says journalists should discuss safety with their sources. (CPJ/Getty/Jeff Zelevansky)

Óscar Martínez: Trust and safety for journalists and sources is vital in El Salvador

Óscar Martínez knows first-hand the dangers of reporting on crime and gang violence. The co-founder of Sala Negra (Black Room)–an investigative reporting project run by the El Salvadoran new outlet El Faro–says he and his colleagues have been threatened and harassed for their hard-hitting coverage. But, Martínez says, their sources are equally at risk of…

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Brazil's Chamber of Deputies holds a session on April 12 with only two deputies after the Supreme Court announced corruption investigations into a number of politicians. A journalist has questioned why the court released details of his telephone call with a source, despite him not being part of the investigation. (AP/Eraldo Peres)

Released recording highlights polarized atmosphere for Brazil’s political reporters

The release of a private conversation between a well-known journalist and his source has shaken the journalistic community in Brazil and highlighted the increasingly polarized and uneasy terrain in which political reporters work.

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A screen shot shows Venezuelan lawmaker Diosdado Cabello on his program on state broadcaster VTV.

Venezuelan court fines news website $500,000 for ‘moral damage’ to politician

Bogotá, Colombia, June 2, 2017–A Venezuelan court’s ruling ordering a news website to pay the equivalent of nearly half a million U.S. dollars in damages for republishing an article about a politician threatens press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Protesters in Mexico condemn the violence and killing of journalists. In the latest attack, a knifeman cut off part of a reporter's ear in Quintana Roo state. (AFP/Hector Guerrero)

Reporter threatened and has part of ear cut off in Mexico’s Quintana Roo state

Mexico City, June 1, 2017–Authorities in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo must undertake a swift investigation into the attack on journalist Carlos Barrios, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. An unidentified man threatened Barrios, who reports for the news website Aspectos, and cut off part of his ear with a knife, his editor…

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US congressional candidate in Montana charged with assaulting reporter

May 25, 2017 — The alleged assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by a candidate competing in today’s special congressional election in Montana sends an unacceptable signal that physical assault is an appropriate response to unwanted questioning by a journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Members of a citizen's "self-defense" group patrol La Mira, Mexico, May 9, 2014. The Tierra Caliente region has been the site of fighting between organized crime and vigilante groups for years. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mexican journalist abducted in Michoacán state

Mexico City, May 22, 2017–Mexican authorities must undertake every effort to secure the safe release of journalist Salvador Adame Pardo, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Gunmen abducted Adame, director of the television station 6TV, on May 18 from the central Mexican town of Nueva Italia.

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Mexican journalists robbed

Unidentified gunmen in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero on May 13, 2017, robbed seven journalists and threatened to kill them, according to press reports and other journalists who spoke with the victims.

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