By Ingrid Bachmann
Public Security Minister Óscar Alvarez rejected the claims made by Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations that point to the existence of an organized group that seeks to silence the Honduran press, Spain's El Mundo reports, with information from news agencies.
Meanwhile, two TV reporters who covered the March killing of colleague Nahúm Palacios Arteaga report receiving recent death threats, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.
Since March 1, seven media workers have been shot to death in Honduras, which now tops the list of most dangerous countries for practicing journalism. An eighth journalist, Ricardo Emilio Oviedo, reported that unknown attackers fired on his home and the TV station where he works in Tocoa, the La Tribuna newspaper announces.
In an interview with La Tribuna, Álvarez insisted that these crimes aren't related to the victim's journalistic work and cited robbery and even jealousy as motives.
Even though the government has announced some progress in the police investigations about the seven crimes, no suspect has been formally accused or tried until now, El Mundo's article adds.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
