Ecuador fines seven news outlets for not reproducing Argentine newspaper story
Bogotá, Colombia, April 24, 2017–Ecuadoran authorities should immediately annul fines imposed on seven media outlets for declining to reproduce a story published in an Argentine newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Two photographers arrested for photographing Brazil protest
Police on April 17, 2017, arrested two Brazilian photographers who were taking photographs of a barricade of burning tires in the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo and accused them of starting the fire, according to one of the photographers and the police report, which CPJ has reviewed.
CPJ joins Fly Don’t Spy campaign to protect journalists and their sources
Over the past several months, the Committee to Protect Journalists has raised concerns over U.S. border agents’ use of secondary searches of journalists and their devices at U.S. borders, and government proposals to require travelers to hand over social media account passwords as a condition of entry to the U.S. That is why today CPJ…
Journalist facing charges in Ecuador files for asylum in Peru
New York, April 18, 2017–Ecuadoran journalist Fernando Villavicencio, director of the news website Focus Ecuador and a critic of outgoing President Rafael Correa, today filed a petition for political asylum in Lima, Peru. A statement from the regional press group Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) said the journalist, who fled to Lima after presidential elections…
Mexican crime reporter murdered
Mexico City, April 17, 2017–Mexican authorities should swiftly and credibly investigate the murder of crime reporter Maximino Rodríguez, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unknown assailants shot and killed Rodríguez on April 14 in the northern Mexican city of La Paz, according to his employer.
CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering Protests in Venezuela
Venezuelan opposition supporters have been protesting against the government of President Nicolás Maduro since the Supreme Court ruled to strip the National Assembly of its lawmaking powers at the end of March. This is the longest sustained wave of anti-government demonstrations since 2014.
Journalists covering Venezuela protests harassed, attacked, and news websites blocked
New York, April 12, 2017–Venezuelan authorities should ensure that journalists can cover protests safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Several reporters have been detained, injured, or had equipment seized while covering ongoing protests over a Supreme Court ruling to strip the opposition-led National Assembly of its lawmaking powers, according to news reports and…
In Brazil, attacker fires at political blogger’s car
Political blogger Márcio Prado was at his home in Rio Grande da Serra, one of the municipalities that ring Brazil’s biggest city São Paulo, in the early hours of April 1, 2017, when he heard gunshots, he told CPJ in a telephone interview. The blogger said he went downstairs to see what was going on…
In Brazil, outdated defamation laws and costly court cases used to pressure critics
Brazilian journalist Erik Silva never imagined that printing information from a municipal government website would see him accused of defamation and lead to a drawn-out court case. But almost a year after writing about the size of salary earned by a municipal accountant in Corumbá, a city of just under 100,000 people on Brazil’s western…
Mexican newspaper editor shot and wounded in Veracruz
Mexico City, March 29, 2017–Mexican authorities should credibly and thoroughly investigate today’s shooting of veteran journalist Armando Arrieta Granados, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Arrieta, the editorial director of the daily Veracruz newspaper La Opinión, was shot and gravely wounded as he returned to his residence in the city of Poza Rica.