2019

When Andrés Manuel López Obrador won Mexico’s presidential elections last year with a promise to drastically cut the millions of dollars the government spends on press advertising each year, it appeared to signal the end to an opaque system that has been criticized as a way for governments to encourage favorable coverage.

Miami, May 8, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing on May 6 of former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000.

New York, May 8, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by civil defamation lawsuits filed in the U.S. state of Florida against journalist Daniel Coronell by former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, now a senator, and his allies, which could have a chilling effect on reporting on the Colombian politician.

Mexico City, May 6, 2019–Mexican authorities must immediately and transparently investigate the killing of journalist and political activist Telésforo Santiago Enríquez, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Enríquez was found shot dead the afternoon of May 2 just outside the city of Juchitán, in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, according to news reports.

During his daily press conference on April 15, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters, “If you go too far, you know what will happen.” López Obrador clarified his remarks the following day, saying he meant that the public would hold reporters who unfairly criticize the government to account. But in a country where…

Guatemala is scheduled to hold presidential and congressional elections on June 16. The Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas reported increased violence against the press during the country’s 2015 elections. Journalists have told CPJ they are being attacked and harassed, especially online, over their coverage of corruption, or reports on President Jimmy Morales and…

The long-running political crisis in Venezuela escalated on April 30, 2019, after a civilian and military uprising was thwarted by the government of Nicolás Maduro, according to news reports. Opposition leaders Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez, accompanied by members of the armed forces, congregated on a highway in eastern Caracas and called upon the armed…

Miami, May 1, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Venezuelan authorities to refrain from restricting access to the internet, social media services, and news outlets in the country during widespread protests and political unrest.

Washington, D.C., May 1, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today joined more than 100 human rights and press freedom groups in sending a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials expressing deep concern over recent actions by the department’s law enforcement agencies–Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement–that threaten the…

Miami, April 30, 2019 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today renewed its calls for Nicaraguan authorities to immediately released detained journalists Lucía Pineda and Miguel Mora. Their trial, which was scheduled to begin yesterday, was instead postponed without a new date set, according to local news reports.