This week, a bill and an executive action that threatened press freedom placed Peru at the center of the storm against journalism in the region.
The IAPA denounced the legislative initiative for the compulsory registration of Peruvian journalists as "a serious step backward," In addition, the Peruvian government's publication of a protocol for the coverage of protests was pointed out as detrimental to freedom of expression.
In Nicaragua, several journalists banished and stripped of their nationality by Daniel Ortega's regime denounced that Nicaraguan banks blocked their accounts. Some of them have also had their property confiscated.
In Bolivia, Sergio Mendoza, a journalist from Los Tiempos de Cochabamba, was rebuked by the police while covering a news story, demanding that he stop recording and delete the film material.
Attacks and limitations on the press throughout Latin America continue to be reported daily. For example, in Argentina, the LED Foundation reported 182 cases of censorship and other acts that limit the exercise of freedom of expression in its annual report.
Finally, in Venezuela, the newspaper El Nacional published digitally from abroad after being closed and confiscated, denounced that the regime of Nicolás Maduro has even persecuted people who are not responsible for the editorial line of the media. He also presented a panorama of generalized repression that affects all Venezuelan journalism that, from digital portals, defies the information blockade in the country.
According to Sip Bot's daily analysis, within the digital conversation, it was identified that the five most mentioned tags were '#registerdemocrats,' '#voterizer,' '#lawfare,' '#desinformacion,' and '#moralessoltaamilagro.' On the other hand, when analyzing interactions around Media, the most meaningful conversations included the tags '#15mar', '#desinformacion,' '#censura,' '#venezuela,' and '#twitterspaces.'
The most influential tweet this week generated 19,917 interactions. It was written by U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan, who criticized Democrats for asking two journalists to reveal their sources at a congressional hearing.
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.
