El Universal

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Mexican President López Obrador repeatedly criticizes news outlets and press freedom group over spyware coverage

Mexico City, May 11, 2023—Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador must stop making baseless criticisms of local news outlets and the international free expression organization Article 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. Since March, López Obrador has sharply criticized Article 19, national investigative magazine Proceso, privately owned online news outlets Animal Político and…

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CPJ condemns Mexican military surveillance of activist’s communications with journalists

Mexico City, March 7, 2023 – In response to multiple reports published Tuesday stating that Mexican authorities surveilled human rights activist Raymundo Ramos’ conversations with journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation: “The revelations that Mexican authorities have continued to spy on activists, including their communications with reporters, is a…

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Graffiti shows the likeness of murdered photojournalist Rubén Espinosa and the eyes and names of the other four victims, on the wall of Mexico City attorney general's headquarters in Mexico City, in July 2016. Deadly violence against journalists is rare in the capital, but reporters covering organized crime in the city say threats are on the rise. (AP/Marco Ugarte)

Threats draw near, damaging Mexico City’s reputation as safe haven for reporters

Emir Olivares was almost too stunned to speak when, on December 6, he found two men in the bedroom of his apartment in Mexico City.

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Police beat a demonstrator in Monclova, in Mexico's Coahuila state, at a protest against rising fuel prices, January 5, 2017. (Fidencio Alonso/Courtesy of Zocalo de Monclova, via Reuters)

Mexican police attack journalists covering protests

Mexico City, January 12, 2017–Mexican police should quickly and credibly investigate reports that police threatened and attacked journalists covering protests last week and should swiftly bring to justice officers found to have assaulted reporters, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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Security forces and residents clash during a protest over food shortages in Caracas on June 2. Several journalists were attacked during the protest. (AFP/Juan Barreto)

Journalists attacked, equipment stolen during protests in Caracas

New York, June 3, 2016–Several journalists were attacked and some had equipment stolen while covering protests in Caracas Thursday, according to news outlets and a local freedom of expression group. Some of the journalists who were attacked said that the Venezuelan National Guard did not intervene to prevent the attacks and in one case, forced…

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After leaving Globovisión, Alberto Ravell, pictured in 2010, set up critical online news site La Patilla. (AFP/Miguel Gutierrez)

In Venezuela, online news helps journalists get their voices back

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was rumored to be gravely ill four years ago, his socialist government was tightlipped about the diagnosis. Then in June 2011 a source in Havana, Cuba, where Chávez was being treated, told Nelson Bocaranda, a veteran columnist for the Caracas daily El Universal, that the president had cancer.

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Copies of Tal Cual are read in Caracas in 2007. The critical Venezuelan newspaper has been forced to downsize in an effort to survive. (AP/Leslie Mazoch)

In Venezuela, Tal Cual under pressure but not defeated

Tal Cual, one of the few remaining Venezuelan newspapers critical of the government, is so shorthanded there’s often no receptionist on hand to let people in. Visitors must bang on the front door until someone in the newsroom notices. That can take a while because there are hardly any editors or journalists left.

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The headquarters of El Universal in Caracas. The daily, which had a reputation for being critical of the government, was sold in July 2014. (Reuters/Jorge Silva)

Venezuela’s El Universal criticized for being tamed by mystery new owners

To illustrate how the once-critical Caracas daily El Universal has cozied up to Venezuela’s socialist government in the wake of its sale in July, it helps to examine the newspaper’s coverage of the current oil price plunge.

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Journalist investigates Bolivia’s ‘silent campaign’ for editorial control

At a bizarre news conference in April, Bolivia’s Communications Minister Amanda Dávila claimed that journalist Raúl Peñaranda, who was born in Chile, represented a dangerous “beachhead” for Chilean interests trying to deny landlocked Bolivia access to the Pacific.

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Gunmen Rule Neza and the Press on Outskirts of Mexico City

Politicians say there are no organized crime cartels in the capital’s metropolitan area. Journalists know better, but they are afraid to report it. By Mike O’Connor

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