Americas
2016
Why the governor of Veracruz should resign
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published, in Spanish, on Univision.com. The state of Veracruz has become one of the world’s most lethal regions for the press. According to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists, when you include the case of Anabel Flores Salazar, whose body was found on Tuesday, at least 12 journalists…
Body of missing Veracruz crime reporter Anabel Flores Salazar found in neighboring state
New York, February 9, 2016–The body of Anabel Flores Salazar, a reporter for El Sol de Orizaba who was abducted from her home near the city of Orizaba in Veracruz on Monday, was found today in the neighboring state of Puebla, according to a Puebla state official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because…
Mexican crime reporter abducted in Veracruz
New York, February 8, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned for the safety of Anabel Flores Salazar, a Mexican crime reporter who was abducted from her home in Orizaba, Veracruz state, at about 2 a.m. today by armed men who claimed to have an arrest warrant for her, according to reports. The general prosecutor…
Claims police spied on two journalists revive surveillance fears of Colombia’s press
When Claudia Morales’s six-year-old daughter asks about her mother’s bodyguards, the Colombian journalist tells her they are colleagues. “She’s too young to understand,” Morales, who works for the Bogotá-based Caracol Radio in the city of Armenia, told CPJ in a telephone interview. Vicky Dávila, the news director of LA Fm Radio who also has private…
CPJ Newsletter: January
Turkey releases jailed Iraqi journalist Following months of advocacy by VICE News, CPJ, and other groups, Iraqi journalist Mohammed Ismael Rasool was released from Turkish prison on January 5. Rasool was arrested in August along with his VICE News colleagues, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, while they were reporting from southeastern Diyarbakir province. The three…
Venezuela’s national assembly reopens to the press after five-year ban
When security guards opened the doors to Venezuela’s colonial-era National Assembly building last Wednesday, I was among the dozens of reporters who swarmed inside. Even though the day’s legislative session would not be called to order for another three hours, every seat in the press galley, located on the second-floor balcony overlooking the chamber, was…
Critical reporter shot dead in Oaxaca, Mexico
Mexico City, January 26, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Mexican authorities to investigate the murder of Marcos Hernández Bautista, including the possibility that he was killed for his work as a journalist, find all those responsible, and bring them to justice.
How U.S. copyright law is being used to take down Correa’s critics in Ecuador
On December 30, César Ricaurte, the executive director of Fundamedios, received a copyright complaint with the potential to close his entire website. The complaint, filed on behalf of Ecuador’s communications regulator SECOM by a company called Ares Rights, ordered the independent press freedom group to remove an image of President Rafael Correa from its website,…