By Alejandro Martínez
The Committee for Free Expression, or C-Libre, claimed that a radio station in Honduras censored without explanation a radio spot it paid for advocating the democratization of the broadcast spectrum.
According to Conexihon, a media company that operates around 60 radio frequencies, the company told C-Libre by email about its decision not to air the ad on its most important station, Radio América. C-Libre said that the statement did not explain the motives behind the decision but added that it amounted to a "clear act of censoring freedom of expression and information."
The radio spot called for a more egalitarian distribution of the broadcast spectrum in the Central American country, which is currently dominated by a small number of businesses, said C-Libre.
"It called for not-for-profit social sectors to be allowed to rent space within the media and withstand all kinds of attacks on freedom of expression, like those that occurred during the coup d'état in 2009, the organization said.
C-Libre asked that granting of radio and television frequencies be more inclusive of communitarian and public media, and underlined the urgency for a new communications law.
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.
