By Dean Graber
Secretary of Security Óscar Álvarez said authorities were close to solving two of the seven killings of media workers in less than two months (six journalists and one broadcaster), including last week’s shooting of TV journalist Jorge “Georgino” Orellana, La Prensa reports.
Authorities have denied the killings are linked to the journalists’ profession or that they indicate an escalation of assaults against freedom of expression. However, some reporters in San Pedro Sula are wearing bulletproof vests, while many say they are placing their safety in God’s hands, a message delivered both at Orellana’s funeral mass and at a special prayer meeting held for journalists in the local offices of the Journalists Guild of Honduras, La Tribuna reports.
Meanwhile, Honduran journalists are using social networks like Facebook to demand “No more killings of journalists in Honduras,” Proceso Digital says. Among those seeking justice are Orellana’s wife, journalist Silvia Munguía, and columnist Alfredo Haces, who writes for Tiempo Digital: “The people want answers with professional investigations, with credible results," and they want to know: "Who are [the killers]? And why?”
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.
