The terror of organized crime against freedom of the press reached dramatic levels this week with the orchestrated attack against five Ecuadorian journalists who received letters with explosive pen drives in Quito and Guayaquil. One of the journalists was injured.
Cases of violence by drug cartels were also reported in Colombia, where two journalists from Cúcuta, a city on the border with Venezuela, reported receiving numerous death threats in recent months.
In Mexico, two reporters were kidnapped for 12 hours by elements of a cartel operating in the state of Quintana Roo. The journalists were found alive. This occurred in the midst of a marked deterioration of public safety in that Mexican state.
In Guatemala, a community journalist was murdered while driving his car on the outskirts of the capital. Authorities found 30 bullet cartridges and a cell phone at the crime scene.
In Rosario, Argentina, police reported that 80 percent of the firearms attacks in that city have been ordered by criminal gang members from prison. Several of these attacks have been perpetrated against the media.
On the other hand, the Peruvian Press Council reported that in the last three months more than 170 aggressions against the press were registered.
When analyzing interactions around the media, the most effective conversations included the hashtags '#ecuador', '#cuba', '#paraguay', '#22mar' and '#bbc'. While the top 5 hashtags mentioned by the audience were '#lawfare', '#ecuador', '#nftcommunity', '#ferrerasgate' and '#ethereum'.
Ahmad Noorani, Pakistani journalist, was the account with the greatest impact on Twitter this week due to a post in which he denounces and condemns the arrest of journalist Siddique Jan.
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.
