Paraguay

More than 20 international and local rights organizations call on Paraguayan lawmakers to reject a proposed law regulating anonymous online posts during elections.

Figueredo, who received an International Press Freedom Award in 2015, has lived under 24-hour police protection for more than two decades following years of death threats for his coverage of organized crime and drug trafficking.

Paraguay’s ¿Quien Defiende Tus Datos? is part of a continent-wide initiative by South America’s leading digital rights groups to shine a light on Internet privacy practices in the region.

ARTICLE 19 calls on the Juvenile Court of Paraguay to consider international standards on free expression, in the case of a small human rights organisation, TEDIC.

Cándido Figueredo – who reports from Pedro Juan Caballero, on the border of Brazil, for ABC Color, one of Paraguay’s largest national dailies – has lived under 24-hour police protection for more than two decades following years of death threats for his coverage on organized crime and drug trafficking.

The IACHR declares a complaint presented by relatives of a murdered journalist to be admissible due to violations of rights to free expression and life.

The IFEX-ALC network absolutely rejects the arbitrary police actions, to which the General Secretary of the Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay, Santiago Ortiz, was subjected this past Wednesday, 25 May. He was detained by force without any justification, in clear violation of the Constitution of Paraguay.

Santiago Ortiz, General Secretary of the SPP, was detained by the National Police for allegedly not carrying his identification with him.

Deputy Olga Ferreira introduced a draft bill before the media today……, which seeks to create a mechanism for protecting journalists and press workers.

IFEX-ALC’s recommendation for the creation of “a special commission in the Public Prosecutor’s Office to bring those responsible [for attacks against journalists and human rights defenders] to justice”, was accepted by Paraguay last week in Geneva.

On 20th January, Paraguay’s human rights record is under the spotlight at the United Nations. Ana Fondo interviewed Francisco Medina about the deteriorating conditions in Paraguay during an IFEX-ALC lobbying mission to Geneva in November 2015.

Following a fact-finding visit to Paraguay, the IFEX-ALC submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council, detailing the context for free expression in the country. Recommendations have now been included in the official stakeholders’ report.

On 4 June the Paraguayan Senate defeated a mandatory data retention bill that would have compelled local ISPs to retain communications and location details of every user for a period of 12 months.

We spoke with TEDIC in Paraguay, an organization that is helping to spearhead the fight against the “Pyrawebs” data retention bill. When we asked what concerned them the most about this law, they didn’t just give us one or two reasons, they gave us 12!

How did a small Paraguayan NGO help defeat a bill that would have forced ISPs to retain customer information for 12 months?

When Figueredo meets a visitor from CPJ in his hometown of Pedro Juan Caballero, located on Paraguay’s eastern border with Brazil, two bodyguards with submachine guns occupy the back seat of his pickup.