JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS

The president's ongoing battle against what he calls the "oligarchic media" has added a new front. The radio program "Suddenly with Chávez" (De Repente con Chávez) began broadcasting Feb. 8, and as its name suggests, it can go on the air at any moment, the Guardian and Times of London report. read more »

Héctor Cordero, a correspondent for TV Guatevisión in Quiché department (northwest of Guatemala City), says he has received phone calls threatening to kill him and warning that his family would pay the consequences for his work, Prensa Libre reports. read more »

A Lima court acquitted Luis Valdez Villacorta, the former mayor of Coronel Portillo, on charges that he had ordered the killing of journalist Alberto Rivera in 2004, the Associated Press reports. read more »

Latin American and Caribbean journalists who cover or edit coverage of the drug trade are invited to apply for the free online course in Spanish "Covering Drug Trafficking," which the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is offering for the third time from March 8–April 11, 2010. Applications will be accepted online until Feb. 21, 2010. read more »

Recent research into the social spread of news showed that readers are more likely to e-mail articles that are positive, practical, or inspire a sense of awe, The New York Times reports. read more »

The closure of Cambio news magazine and the termination of its two top editors are described by its owner, El Tiempo publishing group, as an economic decision, but the dismissed editor-in-chief and managing editor believe political motivations were at play. See this story in English by Colombia Reports. read more »

The 16-year-old son of TV and radio host Eduardo Maldonado was released 27 days after he was kidnapped from his home in Tegucigalpa, EFE reports. read more »

Given the many TV interviews President Obama has granted recently, it would be hard to argue that he hasn’t been accessible to the media. But reporters are complaining that he hasn’t held a news conference since last July, Howard Kurtz writes for the Washington Post. read more »

The killings of three Mexican journalists in January alone, and the news that 15 people, mostly teenagers, were killed at a birthday party in Ciudad Juárez have called new international attention to Mexico’s drug-related violence, which is reported to have killed more than 1,000 people in the first 34 days of this year. Meanwhile, Mexican media workers brace for more attacks. read more »

Magnum Photos, a cooperative owned by some of the world’s most distinguished photographers, has sold its New York print archive to an investment firm owned by Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer, who has loaned the images to the University of Texas for public use. read more »

In response to the recent debate over TV content, several members of Parliament have proposed measures to censor and regulate media. The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed concern about possible governmental interference in the media's editorial decisions. read more »

El Nacional published a front-page image that shows a soldier holding the chain and hooks before a group of students who were protesting the closure of the RCTV cable station. The newspaper also reports that prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation against it over the image published Jan. 28. read more »

The day after the mines: danger without control is the second report by the Argentine Journalism Forum’s (FOPEA) new Investigative Reporting Unit. The multimedia project explores the consequences of mining that may linger even after mines are abandoned and emphasizes the lack of government regulation. read more »

A former member of the secret police during the dictatorship has brought charges against Luiz Claudio Cunha for "moral harm" after being mentioned in the journalist’s book Operation Condor: The kidnapping of the Uruguayans, EFE reports (Spanish). read more »

Twitter users in Mexico City have angered authorities by tweeting the locations of roadside Breathalyzer checkpoints, and kidnappers and drug traffickers are using Facebook and MySpace to communicate. Federal lawmakers have responded by proposing a bill to restrict social networking sites and to create a police force to monitor them, GlobalPost reports. read more »

Governments are uploading vast sets of public records to the internet, and media outlets are building new tools to make it reach the public. The Guardian of London has created a World Government Data site, a gateway to thousands of datasets on 19 government data portals including: read more »

The New York Times’ recent announcement that its frequent site users will have to pay starting early next year is only one example of a media company’s strategy to earn revenue. read more »

Latin American newspapers will only survive with help from the state, but not by continuing to rely on the government for placing ads, longtime media observer Eduardo Bertoni writes for the Huffington Post. read more »

Adding to a litany of recent attacks on press freedom, the Ministry of Communications and Information plans to ask prosecutors to punish Tal Cual for an editorial describing a Venezuela without President Hugo Chávez, ABC.es reports. read more »

Members of the National Revolutionary Police arrested Juan Carlos Reyes Ocaña near his home in Holguín on charges of insult, disobedience, and illicit economic activity, EFE and Reporters without Borders (RSF) report. Reyes works for the Holguín Press news agency. read more »