Miami (February 3, 2023) - This week, the NGO Transparency International (TI) released its Corruption Perceptions Index, which singled out Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua as the most corrupt countries on the continent. In 2022, more than 470 complaints of press freedom violations were registered, and 80 Venezuelan radio stations were shut down.
In Mexico, one of the worst countries in which to work as a journalist, Rubén Darío of the newspaper Por Esto was shot at as he was leaving the newspaper and was unharmed.
In Bolivia, the hosts of the program El Búnker were beaten and pushed while they were making a live broadcast. Carola Briceño, the Venezuelan journalist for El Nacional, fled to Bogotá after receiving threats for her investigations against Maduro.
On the other hand, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) made a statement on the Colombian president's use of Twitter and its effects on press freedom. According to FLIP, Petro "makes corrections, replies or reproaches to the media for how they cover his government." The organization considered that the president should "refrain from issuing any message that citizens could interpret as permissive towards violence against the press."
When analyzing conversations on Twitter, the most popular topic was 'freedom of expression' (740 mentions), followed by 'fake news' (381) and 'media' (289). The Elon Musk account had the highest impact this week.
IAPA Bot is an artificial intelligence tool of the Inter American Press Association that monitors press freedom violations in real time. It tracks information published in the media, Google News, Twitter, and from a selection of IAPA notes and denunciations. In addition, it contains a heat map that allows observing the press freedom climate in each country, a button to make complaints and a menu that highlights the statements of government leaders, citizens' conversations, and relevant events.
IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications in the Western Hemisphere, based in Miami, Florida, United States
