Thursday, May 17, 2007

Reporters at risk in Latin America

Today, Andres Oppenheimer provided a compelling and unsettling look into continuing violence and censorship against journalists in Latin America.

Among the perils reporters face:

In Cuba, the government sentenced independent journalist Oscar Sanchez Madan to four years in prison for “pre-criminal dangerousness.” Yes, that means he was preemptively jailed for something he might have written.

He joins 28 other Cuban journalists, some sentenced to terms of more than 20 years.

Mexico is now the second-deadliest country to report in as drug gangs continue to kidnap and kill reporters. Two reporters who disappeared last week are still missing.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez plans to continue with his plan to dismantle an independent television network at the end of May.

Meanwhile, Cuba and Ecuador are cracking down on freedoms of the press, respectively restricting Internet access and demanding jail time the editor of a newspaper that linked the president with violent demonstrations.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's see...where to start with the latest piece of garbage from Andres Oppenheimer...

What a surprise (!) that he focuses on Cuba, Venezuela, and Ecuador, while ignoring the most egregious abuses against journalists in the hemisphere in Colombia....

His claim that RCTV in Venezuela is "independent" certainly adds new spin to that term in the realm of journalism...

Must I go on???

Anonymous said...
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Sildenafil said...

The problem with Latin America. It is that you have to fight for those rights. because the government is trying to search ways to get benefits from it.