Dr. Leonardo Ferreira is Professor at the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media, member of the Faculty Advisory Board and former Director of the Andean Studies Program of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University (FIU). He has also been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly for nearly 15 years. More recently, Ferreira has been invited to judge submissions for the AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize.
With a PhD in Mass Media from Michigan State University and a JD degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Law School, Professor Ferreira specializes in the study of comparative media law and ethics in the Americas and the history of Latin American communication, including ethnic and community reporting. A Martin Luther King Jr. - César Chávez - Rosa Parks Doctoral Fellow, sponsored by the State of Michigan, Ferreira has been a consultant for Freedom House and the Grupo de Diarios América (GDA). He has worked on projects with the U.S. Department of State, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), Fleishman-Hillard, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) in the Dominican Republic, The Miami Foundation, and the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR, based in Germany), among others. In January 2025, the ISHR presented Dr. Ferreira with the Unsung Human Rights Hero Award for his defense of journalists and their right to freedom of expression and publication in Latin America. Ferreira has also participated in several Latin American news programs, such as BBC Mundo and CNN en Español.
Dr. Ferreira has published works in U.S., British, Spanish, and Latin American academic journals and encyclopedias. His Centuries of Silence: The Story of Latin American Journalism (Praeger, 2006) was a bestseller among U.S. libraries. Choice Magazine of the American Library Association (ALA) called this book: “Probably the most detailed account of the Latin American mass media ever written in English” (May 2007). Last spring, following the annual congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Bloomsbury Publishing, the current rights holder, contacted Professor Ferreira and offered to publish a second edition of Centuries of Silence, as well as a completely new book on journalists in exile in Latin America. The publication of both books is tentatively scheduled for late 2026 and summer 2028, respectively.
His volume in the series Media Laws in Latin America: With Freedom in Sight (Routledge/Francis & Taylor) is scheduled for publication in spring/summer 2026. He is also preparing a journalistic monograph on the indigenous contribution to this field in the Americas (Native Journalism: From Pre-Columbian to Contemporary Times). Five versions of his trilogy on defamation and privacy in Latin America (Argentina, Chile, and Mexico) have appeared in the International Libel & Privacy Handbook (originally with Bloomberg Press/Wiley, now with LexisNexis, the latest in the 2024-2025 edition).