Honduran journalists covering police and judicial issues publicly denounced the National Police for threatening and harassing them because of their investigations into the killing of two students from the National University of Honduras, according to IFEX and C-Libre.
Since Honduran President Porfirio Lobo took office on Jan. 27, 2010, following disputed elections, 16 journalists in the Central American country have been killed and none of the crimes have been solved. In a 2010 report, the Committee to Protect Journalists claimed the “murders [of press workers] occurred in a politically charged atmosphere of violence and lawlessness.” The violence's political undertones have raised concerns about impunity and freedom of expression in Honduras in the wake of the 2009 coup d’état that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office.
A criminal court in Honduras acquitted the main suspect in the killing of journalist David Meza Montesinos, who was shot to death in March 11 2010, reported Proceso.
A television reporter from Honduras is recovering from a bullet wound in the leg after surviving an armed attack that left more than twenty bullet holes in his car the night of Friday, Oct. 28, according to Indo Asian News Service and El Tiempo.
The International Press Institute (IPI) announced that 12 Latin American journalists received death threats in the last month. The grim practice has become disturbingly common in countries like Honduras and Peru, where the highest number of cases originated.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression said he would ask the Honduran government permission to investigate the killings of 16 journalists in the Central American country since the June 2009 coup d'état, reported the news agency EFE.
Gunmen attacked journalist Edgardo Antonio Escoto Amador, known as "Washo," and stole his laptop containing valuable information, reported the organization C-Libre Honduras.
Journalist Mario Castro Rodríguez, director of the Globo TV news program "The scourge of corruption" in Honduras, claims to have received death threats via text messages, according to the Press and Society Institute.
A journalist was killed in Honduras the night of Thursday, Sept. 8, in Puerto Cortés, in the northern part of the country, according to the news agency AFP.
The former mayor of Copán Ruinas, a Honduran city on the border with Guatemala, received death threats from drug traffickers who believe he acted as a source for the digital newspaper El Faro in El Salvador, El Faro reported.
Carlos Alberto Medina Polanco, brother of killed Honduran journalist Héctor Fransico Medina Polanco and himself a journalist, claimed he has been receiving death threats in San Pedro Sula, reported the organization C-Libre.
A Honduran judge issued arrest warrants for a journalist and 16 environmental leaders for allegedly opposing a forest management plan in the town of El Porvenir, in central Honduras.