(IPYS/IFEX) - On 7 May 2009, TV Perú journalist Diego La Torre Rojas and camera operator Miguel Martínez Pinedo, who work for the programme "Confirmado Trujillo", were assaulted by a dozen security agents for the mining company Comarsa. Comarsa is owned by the Sánchez Paredes family, currently under investigation for alleged links to drug trafficking. The incident took place in the city of Trujillo, in the La Libertad region of northern Peru.

(ARTICLE 19/CENCOS/IFEX) - Mexico City, 8 May 2009 - María Teresa Velásquez Navarrete, who has had a career as a journalist for 30 years, was dismissed from her position at Radio Zacatecas in northern Mexico, because of state governmental pressure on the station.

(IAPA/IFEX) - Miami (May 8, 2009) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today protested the decision of Bermuda Prime Minister Ewart Brown to reduce the supply of his government's information to the newspapers The Royal Gazette and Mid-Ocean News, calling the move an act of discrimination.

(FLIP/IFEX) - On 4 May 2009, in the city of Valledupar, Cesar department, in northern Colombia, several police officers assaulted Emilio Castrillón, a photographer for the "El Pilón" newspaper. The incident took place when Castrillón was covering the scene of an explosion at a police precinct in the city. Two police officers and a civilian died in the explosion, the cause of which has yet to be determined. Journalists, including Castrillón, arrived to provide coverage of the effects of the explosion immediately after it took place. However, a group of police officers assaulted Castrillón when he began to take photographs of the damages.

(GHM/IFEX) - On 2 May 2009, at the Greek-Albanian Kristallopigi (Florina) border crossing, 86-year old French citizen Jean (Iancu) Perifan was refused entry into Greece. He was given a refusal of entry note in Greek and Albanian (he speaks neither language) explaining that he was being refused entry because he was an "individual dangerous for national security".

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 6 April 2009, the Aragua State Regional Legislative Council, in central Venezuela, created a commission in charge of reviewing and regulating all information published by the region's media outlets in order to guarantee compliance with the Social Responsibility in Radio and Television Law (Ley Resorte).

(CEPET/IFEX) - On 1 May 2009, Martín Velázquez González, a reporter for the monthly newspaper "Sin Fronteras", was injured with a machete in the municipality of Huimanguillo, Tabasco state, southeastern Mexico. The incident took place when Velázquez González was distributing copies of "Sin Fronteras" that reported on allegations of the misuse of public resources by Francisco Sánchez Ramos, a federal member of congress for the Democratic Revolution Party (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD).

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders hails the 11 May 2009 release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi. Her fiancé, filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, her parents and her lawyers were there to greet her as she emerged from Tehran's Evin prison at 5:45 p.m. (local time).

(RSF/IFEX) - On 6 May 2009, Reporters Without Borders wrote to communication and media minister Lambert Mendé condemning the government's decision to suspend local retransmission of the French public radio station Radio France Internationale (RFI) in the north-eastern city of Bunia, and voicing concern at the possibility that the measure could be extended to the rest of the country.

(PAJ/IFEX) - On 7 May 2009, Yrysbek Omurzakov, the chief editor of the independent social and political newspaper "Tribuna", was beaten in Bishkek.

(CEMESP/IFEX) - Journalists under the banner of the Legislative Reporters Association of Liberia have announced a boycott of media coverage of the office of the President Pro-tempore of the Liberian Senate, Cletus Wotorson, for "assaulting" one of their colleagues, Solomon Ware.

ARTICLE 19 calls on the EU and the Partnership Countries to promptly and independently investigate and prosecute those responsible for the murders of, and violence against, journalists, as well as for assaults against peaceful demonstrators.

(MISA/IFEX) - Botswana publishers, on 6 May 2009, registered a statutory notice with the attorney general and the Ministry of Communications Science and Technology, challenging the Media Practitioners Act of 2008.

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders hails the provisional release on 6 May 2009 of French photographer Jean-Paul Ney, who had been held in Abidjan since late December 2007 in connection with a conspiracy to overthrow the Ivorian government known as the "Christmas in Abidjan" affair.

(CMFR/IFEX) - Manila-based journalist Cecilia "Cheche" Lazaro posted bail on 8 May 2009 after a Philippine local court issued an arrest warrant in connection with a wiretapping complaint filed by a government official in November 2008.

Un journaliste mexicain qui se montrait critique des autorités locales dans l'État septentrional de Durango a été assassiné le 3 mai, Journée mondiale de la liberté de la presse, selon ce que rapportent le Comité pour la protection des journalistes (CPJ), Reporters sans frontières (RSF) et le Comité des écrivains en prison du PEN International.

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 27 April 2009, the headquarters of radio station Onda Sur were surrounded and its directors threatened by a group of demonstrators who complained about the fact that the station, according to them, favors the reelection of Mayor Manuel Aguirre. On 3 May they threw stones at the windows, sprayed the outside of the station with petrol and set it on fire. The firefighters and the police prevented any serious damage. The incident took place in Huaquillas, a town in El Oro province in southern Ecuador.

In a letter to the president of South Korea, CPJ calls attention to his administration's increasing pressure on the country's media and the arrests of four staff members of the country's second largest broadcaster, deeming it an attempt to stifle independent reporting critical of government policies.

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by the 7 May 2009 decision to keep Radio Mada sports reporter Evariste Ramanantsoavina in detention and charge him with "inciting revolt against the republic's institutions, defamation and disseminating false information." He was arrested on 5 May and forced to reveal the location from which the radio was broadcasting in defiance of a closure order.

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the telephone threats that have been made against reporter Santha Wijesuirya of the Lankaenews website and his editor, Bennet Rupasingha, by parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front.