The police and judicial authorities in the southeastern state of Chiapas must explain a 12 October raid on Radio Proletaria, a community radio station in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in which arrests were made and the station was summarily dismantled. The raid was carried out at night by around 30 armed and masked members of the police and the Chiapas State Attorney-General’s Office (PGJE), who did not identify themselves or show any kind of warrant. Six people were arrested,...

President Felipe Calderon announced a plan Wednesday to protect journalists in Mexico, where violence against reporters has surged since the government launched a crackdown on drug traffickers nearly four years ago. The plan includes an early warning system in which reporters would have immediate access to authorities when threatened, the creation of a council to identify the causes behind attacks on reporters, legal reforms, and a package of "best practices" in journalism,...

A Mexican journalist threatened by drug gangs said Tuesday he had been granted political asylum in the United States to escape the cartels' increasingly violent campaign to silence the media. Jorge Luis Aguirre, editor of Ciudad Juarez-based online newspaper La Polaka, fled across the border to El Paso, Texas, after receiving telephone threats minutes after the murder of a fellow journalist by hitmen in November 2008. Aguirre is one of the first Mexican reporters to be granted political...

The largest newspaper in Ciudad Juarez asked the border city's warring drug cartels Sunday for a truce after the killing last week of its second journalist in less than two years. In a front-page editorial, El Diario de Juarez asked the cartels what they want from the newspaper, so it can continue its work without further death, injury or intimidation of its staff. "Leaders of the different organizations that are fighting for control of Ciudad Juarez: The loss of two reporters from...

Mexico's powerful cartels have thwarted military and government crackdowns on drug-related violence and have now become so threatening, one of the country's biggest newspapers has said it will cut drug war coverage in an effort to keep journalists alive. El Diario, the largest newspaper in violence-riddled Ciudad Juarez, published a front-page editorial Sunday asking the cartels what it can and can't publish after a journalist for the publication was brutally murdered - the second slain in...

A Mexican journalist had turn to the United States government for safety after he said he was kidnapped by the Chapo Guzman drug cartel. Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco works as a cameraman for Mexican T.V. network Televisa. Pacheco told authorities he, and three other people, were kidnapped in July and held for five days. Pacheco said they were tortured, beaten and starved. After his release, Pacheco now fears for his life and the safety of his family. Carlos Spector, immigration attorney,...

There has a new surge in cases of harassment and censorship of journalists working for radio stations that have been outspoken in their criticism of the government since the June 2009 coup d’état. Radio Uno, an educational station in the northern city of San Pedro Sula that has repeatedly criticised the regime, was forced off the air by an act of sabotage on the night of 30 August. It has since been able to resume broadcasting amid much tension. Its staff has often been the...

Honduras should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into a recent wave of killings and threats against journalists, Human Rights Watch said today. Three journalists have been killed in March, and five others have been threatened. “It’s impossible to know the exact motive of these attacks without an adequate investigation,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “But the murders and threats are generating a climate...

An independent Cuban blogger has launched the island's first digital magazine, with a variety of contributions from well-known authors in and out of the country but free of "any type of -isms." "It's a vehicle for the rainbow of opinions in this critical moment that Cuba is going through," said Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, editor of Voces, or Voices. "We want a more rational Cuba, without any type of -isms," the 38-year-old Pardo said by phone from his home in...

William Páez, the 12th Trial Judge for Protection of Children and Adolescents in Caracas, changed his mind and repealed a ruling banning all Venezuelan daily and weekly newspapers, as well as magazines, from posting images of violent events over the next 30 days. The Legal Adviser of the Ombudsman Office, Larry Davoe, released the information in an interview with state-run television station Venezolana de Television (VTV). Earlier, Páez had advised daily newspaper El...