Dominican Republic ‘partially restricts’ freedom of the press

Washington.- Costa Rica and Uruguay are still the only two Latin American countries with a free press in 2013, according to the annual report on the freedom of expression by Freedom House.

The freedom of the press organization based in Washington kept Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela among the nations without a free press.

Paraguay, which joined that category last year, this time is in the group of 12 Lat-Am countries that partially restrict freedom of the press with "reduced political influence" over Sate-run media. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic round out the group.

The document notes that Venezuela worsened its ranking compared with the previous year due in part to private companies linked to Nicolas Maduro’s administration having acquired media, such as TV network Globovisión.

It said Ecuador also faltered following approval of a law on communications that "created powerful regulatory entities with questionable independence."

The report said conditions in Honduras or Mexico haven’t improved on the "high levels of violence and intimidation" against the media.

Freedom House kept the U.S. among the countries with a free press, but lowered its rating on doubts about journalists’ ability to protect sources, arising with the illegal phone-tapping at The Associated Press and the revelations by former CIA analyst Edward Snowden on Washington’s hacking into the Web and telecom providers.