The press faced insults, assaults, kidnappings, and attacks during the last weeks of the year. The IAPA Bot heat map colored Haiti, Bolivia, and Argentina red.
The press faced insults, assaults, kidnappings, and attacks during the last weeks of the year. The IAPA Bot heat map colored Haiti, Bolivia, and Argentina red.
In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, two journalists were kidnapped. Barnatte Daniel, a Regard FM radio journalist, disappeared on Friday, December 15, and the media claim that her captors are asking for US$500,000 for her ransom. Pierre-Fils Saintamour, a presenter of Radio Scoop FM, was kidnapped at the end of November along with his family and released 11 days later after paying a large sum of money.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the incident and regretted "the danger in which local journalists carry out their work, becoming victims of criminals."
In Argentina, protesters against Javier Milei's government attacked journalists during a protest. Piquetero leader Eduardo Belliboni attacked a TN reporter while he was interviewing him. "What's wrong with you, you idiot? You're a worker; they're going to fire you, idiot. They're going to fire you, you fool," he told him.
The protesters also scolded the reporters from the A24 and TN media who were covering the event.
In Bolivia, two journalists who shared critical news about the performance of the police institution were excluded from the WhatsApp press groups of the Special Forces to Fight Crime (FELCC) and the Departmental Command of the Cochabamba Police. The National Press Association (ANP), recently victim of an attack on its offices, condemned the incident.
The Mexican organization Article 19 denounced that journalist Reyna Haydee is the victim of a smear campaign for having questioned President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
On the other hand, according to a study by the Latinobarómetro Corporation, 61% of Salvadorans are afraid to express their opinions on the country's problems since they consider that they could face "negative consequences."
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.