El Salvador’s Human Rights ombudsman called on the police and Attorney General to open an investigation into the series of threats received by journalists at Radio Victoria, in the central department of Cabañas, La Prensa Gráfica reports.
The ombudsman, Óscar Luna, accused the authorities of failing to do their jobs and said they were responsible for any harm that may come to the threatened journalists.
Radio Victoria is a community broadcaster known for supporting local environmental activists, and the most recent threats were also received by a prominent anti-mining organizer.
The threatening letter they all received (reproduced in Spanish here) explicitly mentions the mining conflict.
This is not the first time Radio Victoria has faced threats for its opposition to mining projects in the region. They were told that they “were next” after the corpse of an environmental activist was discovered in 2009.
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.
