Practising Global Journalism

12 Latin America

Newspapers first appeared in Latin America towards the end of the 1500s, publishing information on official, administrative, commercial and religious matters. Some even carried news of the type we would recognize today. In the Spanish colonies the press began more as leaflets of a religious nature during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Revolutionary newspapers took centre stage in the nineteenth century. A free press began as the individual states of Latin America became independent. In Buenos Aires, freedom of the press was promulgated in 1813.

The media systems in the region have much in common. Most are privately owned and the print media tend to be in the hands of old press families. There are few laws preventing ...