A record total of 533 journalists are currently detained worldwide, according to the annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Mexico the most lethal country to work as a journalist reported this week the sixth death of one of its members so far this year. According to media protection agencies stats, last year the number was 7 or 9, (depending on if the person was killed while on duty), and 47 in the last five years.
Brazil's four largest news media outlets said they have withdrawn their reporters from coverage of President Jair Bolsonaro's official residence due to the lack of security to protect them from heckling and abuse by his supporters.
Twitter has restored some of the accounts of Cuban state-run media, journalists and government officials it had blocked on Wednesday, although others like that of Communist Party leader Raul Castro remain suspended.
The National Union of Workers of the Press (SNTP) of Venezuela reported that reporters from the Spanish international agency EFE who were detained by the National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) in Caracas will be deported despite fulfilling the necessary papers to carry out his journalistic work.
A 20-year-old man has made a comprehensive confession that he was behind a data breach affecting hundreds of high-profile Germans, police say. Styling himself G0d, he published private information about politicians, journalists, and celebrities on Twitter, under the username @_0rbit.
On World Press Freedom Day, United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres made a brief statement saying ”a free press is essential for peace, justice and human rights for all. It is crucial to building transparent and democratic societies and keeping those in power accountable. It is vital for sustainable development.
A record number of journalists, 141 in 29 different countries, were killed globally in 2012, according to data of the Swiss-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), which fights for the protection of journalists. At least 28 of them were killed in Latinamerica.
More journalists were killed doing their job in 2012 than in any year since monitoring started 17 years ago, with Syria and Somalia seeing a particularly heavy toll followed by Pakistan and Mexico, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Wednesday.
More than 100 journalists or other media staffs were killed in 2011, up from last year's toll, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said, calling on UN Secretary General Bank Ki-moon to act to help protect the profession.