Miami (April 14, 2023) - A new journalist kidnapped by gang members in Haiti brought to six the number of journalists who have been kidnapped in that country since last year by criminal gangs seeking to profit from extortive kidnappings.
Three Haitian journalists were kidnapped and released after payment of their ransom in this year, which keeps the Caribbean nation in orange on IAPA Bot's heat map.
In Ecuador, another nation in fiery tones, a Teleamazones team was assaulted for the third time during news coverage in the last six months.
In Argentina, the Circle of Parliamentary Journalists expressed its concern about the obstacles to journalists to circulate freely in the Senate building.
The National Association of Journalists in Bolivia rejected the bill which seeks to annul the current Printing Press Law to make way for a "Gag Law" and called for demonstrations in several cities.
In Nicaragua, the movement Journalists and Independent Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN) demanded the release of journalist Víctor Ticay, arrested while covering a religious procession during Holy Week.
In Venezuela, the organization Espacio Público documented 34 violations of freedom of expression in March. And, in Peru, police said they will "investigate" the arrest of a journalist for "filming too closely" while covering a demonstration in Piura province.
With 11,145 interactions, the tweet that had the most impact this week was written by Argentine economist Diana Mondino. She posted: "It is necessary to close public media and cut all official advertising to have independent journalism". Her tweet generated five dominant tags: #lawfare, #12abr, #twitter, #viral and #trendingnews.
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.
