Americas

Various news outlets had coverage over the weekend of press freedom in Russian in light of last week’s brutal assault on Mikhail Beketov, a Moscow newspaper editor who still remains comatose in a local hospital. The Chicago Tribune as well as the UK-based newspapers The Guardian and The Sunday Herald are running stories about the dangers…

CPJ’s 2008 International Press Freedom awardees, who were officially announced yesterday at a press conference in Washington, are making news today–including editor Andrew Mwenda, who was concurrently issued an arrest warrant in his home country of Uganda.

CPJ’s Monica Campbell is interviewed today on NPR’s “People and Places” about the recent murder of crime reporter Armando Rodriguez and the worsening situation for Mexican journalists. She is joined by journalist Arturo Chacon.Visit NPR.org to listen to the report.

Making headlines today across the English and Spanish-language press is the brutal murder of Mexican crime reporter Armando Rodríguez.

Mexico’s special prosecutor for crimes against journalists has responded to CPJ’s October 24 letter expressing concerns about the investigation into the murder of U.S. filmmaker Bradley Will. The prosecutor’s response leaves much unresolved.

The Chauncey Bailey Project is shaking up California authorities from Oakland to Sacramento, after alleging misconduct by police–including mishandling or withholding evidence by the chief detective investigating their colleague’s murder. Evidence recently published by the project, a rare, ad hoc consortium of committed journalists, has led the Alameda district attorney to open an independent oversight…

Monday, October 27, marks the second anniversary of the killing in Mexico of Bradley Roland Will, a U.S. documentary filmmaker. Will was shot while covering clashes between anti-government protesters and government supporters in the southern state of Oaxaca. The investigation into the killing has become a source of great concern.

The Maria Moors Cabot Prize is one of the greatest honors conferred on journalists covering Latin America. The black tie gala, which took place last Thursday at Columbia University’s majestic Low Library, is like an annual reunion for journalists like me who have worked in the region.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced it decided to issue visas to two Cuban journalists who had previously been denied reentry into the U.S. As a footnote to the transcript of spokesman Sean McCormack’s discussion about the case of Cuban journalists Ilsa Rodriguez Santana and her husband, Tomas Anael Granados Jimenez, which was reviewed…

Haiti’s best known press freedom activist, Guyler Delva, sent out a frantic call for help yesterday morning. At least 70 journalists and media workers in the northern city of Gonaïves are living in dire circumstances, Delva said in his e-mail. They need food, clothes, and shelter, as well as equipment, he specified. In short, “they…