Honduras and the Rule of Law

At the head of the table, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo convenes a special press conference with members of the international media last week to discuss the investigation into the kidnapping and murder of journalist Alfredo Villatoro.

by Rick Rockwell

The kidnapping and murder of Alfredo Villatoro may be proving to be a watershed of realization for the Honduran government.  The details surrounding the investigation of the Villatoro case have shown the weakness and vulnerability of the government of President Porfirio Lobo.  On a wider scale, the Villatoro case is again proving that without the rule of law free speech is threatened and indeed the crucial infrastructure of the democratic system crumbles without the support free speech provides.

The Villatoro case comes as somewhat of an embarrassment to President Lobo.  The case revealed the lack of information the police and other authorities had despite arresting suspects attached to Villatoro’s kidnapping.  (For more on the origins of the case please see, “Media Danger Zone:  Honduras on the Edge.”)  Hours after the president announced Villatoro was alive and that authorities were doing everything possible to work the case, the journalist’s body was found.  Villatoro had been shot execution style in the head.  His killers had dressed him in the uniform of the Honduran National Police.  While Honduran authorities said this symbolic message showed drug cartels were behind the murder, the president’s office scrambled to contain the image of a country where the cartels could act with impunity.

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The African Media Initiative Seeks to Improve Journalism — The time seems right to combine big ideas connected to journalism and communication with up and coming technologies.  The goal is to boost the quality of communication in Africa.

Italy’s TV Made of Words — What if you made a television program just about words and it wasn’t a game show? Would people watch? Perhaps it has to do with charismatic hosts, but millions of Italians turned out to watch just that type of television this week.

Netflix Expands to Latin America and Beyond — If Netflix is changing the on demand video world in the United States, what will happen when it expands globally?  Latin America is the latest region where Netflix is rolling out.

Film: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia — This Turkish film that appears to be a slow-moving crime film, actually is all about photography and character development.  The critics love it, but audiences have had mixed reactions.  Get the view from our critic.

Film: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

by Echo Xie

When a movie gets a nearly perfect critics score and an only so-so audience rating, you know what you’re about to walk into. Most possibly, it will either bore you, or confuse you. In this case, it is little of both.

Once Upon A Time in Anatolia (released in the U.S. in January this year, and last fall in Turkey and elsewhere in Europe) begins at a seemingly random and brief scene where three men are chatting and drinking at night. Then after the opening credits, the next hour feels more like a road movie. In nearly complete darkness, three vehicles are moving into sight from far beyond the hills. When the cars stop, several people step out, take a look around and then go back to the cars to continue their journey. As the story slowly progresses, we are told that in the cars are a police commissioner, a prosecutor, a doctor, a secretary, two “diggers,” several military officers and two murder suspects, and they are searching for a victim’s body buried somewhere on the vast Anatolian steppe. In the process of the endless driving-stoping-searching, those characters gradually come to life. They all have a past they are trying so hard to bury but somehow they keep digging it up.

Netflix Expands to Latin America and Beyond

by Becky Mezzanotte

Netflix is expanding. What started off as a simple concept in the U.S. is now becoming international. And who can blame them? The market for accessing movies and television series instantly isn’t just an American demand. It’s a global one.

So it comes as no surprise that Netflix announced its plans to expand to Latin America this past week.  Netflix announced last year that it would be expanding to the U.K. and I don’t think it will be long before Netflix tries expanding to other parts of the globe.

Italy’s TV Made of Words

Roberto Saviano (l) and Fabio Fazio (r), the hosts of Italy’s “Quello Che (Non) Ho” appear on the television network La7.

by Erica Sanchez-Vazquez

For many years, Italian television has had a pretty bad reputation. Discussions about the small screen in Italy often end up highlighting concerns about, for example, the political consequences of concentrated media ownership,  or the representation of women.  Nevertheless, there have been a few oases. One of them is a series that revolves around words and the experiences and thoughts that they evoke.

Quello Che (Non) Ho (In English: What I (Don’t) Have) premiered this week on Italy’s  La7 network for a brief run. The show is hosted by Fabio Fazio and Roberto Saviano, a writer who has taken a prominent role in denouncing the mafia. Guests have to bring words that are dear to them and do monologues, songs or other performances about them. The hosts also perform, and they all get very political.

The African Media Initiative Seeks to Improve Journalism

A journalist with the BBC World Trust works with aspiring reporters at a workshop in East Africa in 2010.

by Gabby LaVerghetta

With so much attention being given to the dark side of digital media (think censorship, privacy concerns), it’s easy to become pessimistic about new communication technologies. Africa has a chance to highlight the good that information and communication technologies (what some academics and others like to label ICTs) can do for journalism. This month the African Media Initiative (AMI) launched the African News Innovation Challenge.  The pan-African contest seeks ideas for using technology to improve the quality of journalism on the continent.

Residents of any country can enter as long as they have an African media partner. Winners will receive grants from $12,000 to $100,000 to develop their projects, as well as professional startup advice and technical support.