CPJ Blog

Press Freedom News and Views

Carlos Lauría

CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría, a native of Buenos Aires, is a widely published journalist who has written extensively for Noticias, the world’s largest Spanish-language newsmagazine. Follow him on Facebook @ CPJ en Español.

Blog | Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, USA

At OAS, a victory for human rights and free expression

By Carlos Lauría/Senior Americas Program Coordinator
Foreign Minister of Ecuador Ricardo Patiño speaks about human rights during the Organization of American States general assembly in Washington, D.C., on March 22. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

By reaffirming the autonomy and independence of the regional human rights system and rejecting attempts to neutralize the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its special rapporteur for freedom of expression, the Organization of American States (OAS) chose last week to discard proposals that would have made citizens throughout the hemisphere more vulnerable to abuses.

The OAS extraordinary assembly, held at the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Friday, adopted a resolution by which the 35 member states ratified the ability of the commission to continue receiving voluntary contributions. Analysts and human rights advocates say the decision was a blow to countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, known as ALBA, which have been pushing to preclude outside funding for the IACHR.

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March 26, 2013 5:08 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Also in Español
Tags: IACHR, Impact, Organization of American States
Blog | Brazil, CPJ

Brazil officials back OAS human rights system

By Carlos Lauría/CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Carlos Lauría, left, and Mauri König meet Brazil's chief justice, Joaquim Barbosa, on Wednesday as part of a CPJ mission to Brazil. (Supreme Federal Tribunal)

"Leave me in peace. Wallow in your garbage," Brazilian Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa said in a rage when a reporter with one of the leading national newspapers, O Estado de Sao Paulo, tried to ask him a question Tuesday at a meeting of the National Council of Justice in Brasilia, the capital. Stunned by Barbosa's reaction, the journalist demanded an explanation. "You are a clown," was the response he received from the president of Brazil's highest court.

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March 8, 2013 1:45 PM ET | | Also in Português
Tags: ABRAJI, Fernando Rodrigues, Harassed, Henrique Alves, IACHR, Impunity, Joaquim Barbosa, Killed, Maria do Rosário, Mauri König, O Estado de Sao Paulo, Organization of American States, Renan Calheiros, Threatened
Blog | Ecuador, Sweden, UK, USA

As it backs Assange, Ecuador stifles expression at home

By Carlos Lauría/Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa holds the hands of Christine Assange, the mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, during a meeting in Quito, Ecuador, Aug. 1. (AP/Martin Jaramillo)

The Quito government's decision to grant Julian Assange political asylum comes at a time when freedom of expression is under siege in Ecuador. President Rafael Correa's press freedom record is among the very worst in the Americas, and providing asylum to the WikiLeaks founder won't change the repressive conditions facing Ecuadoran journalists who want to report critically about government policies and practices.

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August 16, 2012 5:25 PM ET | | Comments (21) | Also in Español
Tags: César Ricaurte, Censored, El Universo, Expelled, Fundamedios, Harassed, Julian Assange, Legal Action, Rafael Correa, WikiLeaks
Blog | Colombia

Uribe's angry tweets do more than antagonize

By Carlos Lauría/CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Álvaro Uribe speaks at a 2011 congressional hearing about his alleged responsibility in the wiretapping of political opponents and journalists. (AP/William Fernando Martinez)

More than a year after he left office, Álvaro Uribe Vélez confessed that "it was not in him" to live as a former president. And in fact, having dominated Colombian politics for eight years, it has been impossible for Uribe to fade from the public eye since leaving office in August 2010. Instead of retiring to his ranch in Antioquia, he has lived in a heavily protected compound in the capital, Bogotá, with his wife and two sons. He spends his time traveling abroad for speaking engagements, has been a scholar at Georgetown University, and more recently announced the creation of a new political platform to oppose current President Juan Manuel Santos.  

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July 11, 2012 4:17 PM ET | | Also in Español
Tags: Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Claudia Julieta Duque, Daniel Coronell, Gonzalo Guillén, Hollman Morris, Hugo Chávez Frías, Internet, Juan Forero, Manuel Santos, Roméo Langlois, Social Media, The Washington Post, Twitter
Blog | Ecuador

Nations urge Ecuador to guarantee freedom of expression

By Carlos Lauría/CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patiño said 'ignorance' was behind international criticism of press freedom conditions in Ecuador. (AP/Dolores Ochoa)

Stressing concerns of human rights groups about the deterioration of press conditions under the administration of President Rafael Correa, 17 members of the United Nations submitted recommendations to Ecuador on freedom of expression issues before the U.N. Human Rights Council this week. While Ecuador tried to pass off the criticism as resulting from ignorance, the states' observations made clear that the international community is fully aware of Correa's repressive tactics against the local media.

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May 24, 2012 12:11 PM ET | | Comments (2) | Also in Español
Tags: Defamation, El Universo, Legal Action, U.N. Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review
Blog | El Salvador

El Salvador government pledges to protect El Faro

By Carlos Lauría/CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes denies that his government has engaged in negotiations with gangs to lower the rate of homicides. (AP/Luis Romero)

"El Salvador is committed to guaranteeing the safety of El Faro and its staff so they can continue their investigative work," David Rivas, spokesman for President Mauricio Funes Cartagena, told CPJ in a recent phone conversation. The government's pledge came after groundbreaking reporting by the digital newspaper about secret negotiations in which local gangs, known as Maras, said they would limit murders in exchange for official concessions, like having imprisoned gang members transferred to lower-security prisons.

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April 6, 2012 10:35 AM ET | | Also in Español
Tags: Carlos Dada, Crime Reporting, David Munguía Payés, El Faro, Impact, Mauricio Funes Cartagena, Threatened
Blog | Mexico

Solidarity in Sinaloa: Journalists, others address crisis

By Carlos Lauría/CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Citizens, officials, and civil society groups joined journalists for Tuesday's discussion on the state of press freedom in Sinaloa. (Ron Bernal)

A unified front is crucial when facing a crisis in press freedom like that in the violent state of Sinaloa in Mexico, Colombian journalist and CPJ board member María Teresa Ronderos said this week. She was speaking to a packed room of print, radio, and television reporters; members of civil society groups; state legislators; union leaders; human rights activists; and even ordinary citizens, who had gathered for a discussion on the press in one of Mexico's most dangerous cities, Culiacán.

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March 8, 2012 1:00 PM ET | | Also in Español
Tags: Alejandro Sicairos, Attacks 2011, El Debate, Killed, María Teresa Ronderos, Noroeste, Ríodoce, Threatened
Blog | Brazil, Cuba

Rousseff quiet as Cuban blogger denied travel to Brazil

By Carlos Lauría/Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Blogger Yoani Sánchez says she has been denied permission to leave Cuba 19 times. (AFP/Adalberto Roque)

The response from Cuban officials did not take anyone by surprise. Prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez had been, once again, denied permission to leave her country after she was granted a visa by the Brazilian Embassy in January to attend a film festival. "I feel like a hostage kidnapped by someone who doesn't listen nor provide explanations. A government with a ski mask and a gun in a holster," tweeted Sánchez on Friday after the Cuban government denied her request to travel to Brazil. It was, according to the blogger, the 19th time Cuban officials have turned down her request to leave the island. As in the past, officials gave no reason for the rejection.

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February 9, 2012 10:06 AM ET | | Comments (1) | Also in Español
Tags: Dado Galvao, Desde Cuba, Dilma Rousseff, Generación Y, Harassed, Yoani Sánchez
Blog | Argentina

Cabezas' convicted killers are free, 15 years after murder

By Carlos Lauría/Americas Senior Program Coordinator
Photojournalists raise photos of José Luis Cabezas as thousands gathered in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, February 25, 1997, to protest Cabezas' murder the previous month. (AP/Daniel Muzio)

It was a cold winter morning more than 15 years ago. As part of my daily routine as a foreign correspondent, I opened my laptop to read the Argentine papers. I was shocked by a headline: my colleague José Luis Cabezas, a photographer for the newsweekly magazine Noticias, had been murdered. His bullet-ridden body was found on January 25, 1997, inside a burned car, handcuffed and charred, on the outskirts of the beach resort of Pinamar.

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January 31, 2012 4:12 PM ET | | Also in Español
Tags: Alfredo Yabrán, Carlos Saúl Menem, Eduardo Duhalde, Impunity, José Luis Cabezas, Killed, Noticias
Blog | Mexico

Mexican cartels keep up social media intimidation

By Carlos Lauría/CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator
A marcher stops to write a peace slogan during an August 2011 protest against Mexican violence. (AP)

The dissemination of reports and graphic photos of a dead man, reportedly decapitated and left in the border city of Nuevo Laredo with a warning that he was murdered for using a chat room, appears to be the latest attempt by organized crime to intimidate social media users and control the online agenda.

While it's impossible to know the man's identity, the reason for his death, or other details, the veracity of the reports and photos are nearly beside the point. In Mexico's current climate, where CPJ research shows criminal organizations control the information agenda in many cities, what matters is the success of such attempts to scare professional and, increasingly, citizen journalists.

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November 11, 2011 10:25 AM ET |
Tags: Blogger, Internet, Nuevo Laredo Live, Social Media, Threatened
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