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Undeterred by mounting violence against reporters, Honduran president proposes bill to regulate the media

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo announced that he will send a bill to regulate the press during the inauguration of the new session of Congress, according to the Associated Press.

The Jan. 25 announcement was coolly received in the face of the unsolved killings of 17 journalists since 2010 and security forces' track record of attacking and threatening reporters.

"The press is for no one's personal benefit...and in the name of freedom of expression no one can defend their personal interests," said Lobo, president of the second most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists.

The president did not, however, outline what the bill would include and did not give a date by which it would be submitted for debate, according to the website Infobae.

Lobo said that the objective was not to limit freedom of expression but to guarantee that the news media's information was impartial, reported the newspaper La Tribuna.