A Honduran journalist has decided to suspend two radio and TV programs due to threats, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Julio Ernesto Alvarado, host of the programs Medianoche on Radio Globo and Mi Nación on Globo TV, detailed the threats to the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees of Honduras (COFADEH), said the website Human Rights Defenders. Alvarado said the threats could indicate that his life is in imminent danger. Recently, a number of suspicious vehicles have passed by the Globo buildings where Alvarado works, and passengers have asked for him, said the newspaper Proceso. In another incident, Alvarado’s car was vandalized. The journalist also noted that he has been followed by a motorcycle while driving.
Alvarado has been a critic of Honduras’ security forces and related the vandalism of his car to his criticism of the slow pace of investigations of the Feb. 2012 Comayagua prison fire, in which 361 died, according to Frontline Defenders.
After the 2009 coup d’etat, the owner of a TV channel censored the transmission of Mi Nación. Alvarado had to get a contract with another channel to continue his work, according to the website Defensores en Línea.
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.
