In a wave of escalating violence against the media, two Televisa television stations in northern Mexico were rocked by grenade attacks over the weekend. Local Televisa stations in the cities of Tamaulipas and Monterrey were hit by explosives about four hours apart on late Saturday and early Sunday, according to media reports. No injuries were reported, however news footage showed damage to vehicles and studio buildings. Sunday's blast at Televisa's Monterrey facility marks the second...

Six months after President Porfirio Lobo took office, Honduras has made little progress toward addressing the serious human rights abuses since the 2009 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. Threats and attacks against journalists and the political opposition have fostered a climate of intimidation, while impunity for abuses remains the norm. "Violent attacks on journalists and political opponents have had a profound chilling effect on basic freedoms in Honduras," said José...

The editor of the newspaper Correio de Notícias, Afonso Locks, was followed and beaten last week in the city of Cerejeiras (in the state of Rondonia ), by persons linked to ex-Mayor José Eugênio Zigue de Souza, reported Folha de Rondônia, where the journalist also is a correspondent. On July 30, Locks was followed by two vehicles and then beaten in front of a radio station, the article said. According to the site Rondonotícias, among the aggressors was the son...

Mexican police on Saturday rescued two television journalists kidnapped by drug cartel members who demanded networks broadcast their messages. Security Minister Genero Garcia Luna said cameramen Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernandez were being held in the northern state of Coahuila by members of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful drug trade organization. The Sinaloa cartel is run by Mexico's top drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The two journalists were abducted...

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) will investigate military agression against three journalists who covered a police operation in Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas, reported El Universal. According to La Jornada, the CNDH also asked the army to take precautionary measures to protect the aggreived jounalists as a way of guaranteeing the free exercise of journalism. In a statement, the commission said that fighting crime does not justify assaulting journalists. ...

Judge Jesús Fernández arrived Saturday, July 10, in Honduras for a special mission to help the government of Porfirio Lobo in its investigation into the deaths of at least seven journalists this year, reported El Heraldo. In May, President Lobo asked Spain for help to investigate these crimes, which according to Honduran authorities have nothing to do with the journalists practicing their jobs, and the government insists public institutions are not involved, reported Europa...

The rights enshrined in the Venezuelan Constitution that allow the existence of political pluralism, as well as freedom of thought and opinion, were the principles supported by Jorge Cardinal Urosa Savino, upon his arrival at Venezuela from Rome. "The Venezuelan Constitution enshrines democratic pluralism, freedom of opinion and freedom of thought. I refer to these thoughts only when I talk to Venezuelan people," said the Catholic leader at Maiquetía International Airport,...

Pedro Aranguren, the defense attorney of journalist Leocenis García, was advised that the 20th Trial Judge Jesús Jiménez issued a walking paper. In a telephone conversation with El Universal, Leocenis García's sister María Lucía awaited for the delivery of the prison release documents from the 20th Trial Court to go to the Tocuyito jail. Aranguren said he had no details about the judge's decision, "but the walking paper has been...

"From this moment, I start an indefinite hunger strike until Judge 20, Jesús Jiménez, refrains from hearing my case," Venezuelan journalist Leocenis García said in a SMS. Last week, defense attorney Pedro Aranguren sought to disqualify Judge 20, but Judge Jiménez dismissed the case. According to Aranguren, the decision on Jiménez was absurd, because the Court of the Appeals, a higher court, should be the institution that can declare null or...

Representatives from 12 Latin American countries and Spain met in an event called "MPs around the world", in which former governor of the state of Zulia, Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, highlighted the importance of having international observers in the upcoming parliamentarian elections to be held in Venezuela. The former presidential candidate called upon European lawmakers to assess Venezuela's situation. "International observers must witness the disaster Venezuela has...