Two journalists in Honduras have continued to receive death threats in 2013, according to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre in Spanish).
Television reporter in the city of Puerto Cortés, Selvin Martínez, receives constant threats through text messages after he survived two armed attacks by gang members in 2012. Since then, the Secretary of Security took measures to protect the reporter but Martínez continues to suffer intimidation and threatening phone calls.
The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) denounced that journalist and activist Itsmania Pineda continues to receive threats online, through Skype and Twitter, and recently faced cyber attacks on her email and blog, which forced her to close the offices of her non-profit organization Xibalba Arte y Cultura.
The journalist has been receiving threats since she participated in a demonstration in December 2011 demanding the end to impunity for crimes committed against journalists in Honduras.
Itsmania Pineda has already filed several complaints but has never received a satisfactory response from the authorities. She is currently under the protection of a police officer whom she accused of several criminal acts, according to RSF.
The Paris-based organization requested protection for another Xibalba founder, María Isabel Barahona Morales, who is also under threat. She requested to leave Honduras but an error in the civil registry has prevented her from fleeing the Central American country. In a letter addressed to the minister of justice and the commissioner of human rights, RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire requested protection for both activists.
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.
