Episodes of press censorship in Latin America are at the highest levels since many countries began to return to democracy 30 years ago, writes Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Lauría’s analysis of censorship in the continent was part of the CPJ’s annual report titled Attacks on the Press 2010.
Radio Faluma Bimetu/Coco Dulce, a station serving the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community in the Honduran coastal city of Triunfo de la Cruz, returned to the air after a month of threats, tension, and hostility, reports Reporters without Borders (RSF).
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo announced that he had received an offer from the U.S. government to help investigate the deaths of ten journalists who were killed in 2010, EFE reports.
Honduran prosecutors are pursuing a complaint by a journalist and photographer from La Prensa newspaper who were assaulted and kicked out of a public building while covering a teacher protest in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in the county.
Radio Faluma Bimetu/Coco Dulce, a station serving the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community in the Honduran coastal city of Triunfo de la Cruz, suspended transmissions this weekend due to “increasing threats and hostility” in the lead up to local elections, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) reports.
The Inter-American Human Rights Commission on Jan. 11 condemned the harassment against community radio stations in Honduras by police and government officials, reported Univisión.
President Porfirio Lobo’s government has asked for the help of the United States, Colombia, and Spain to help investigate the killings of ten Honduran journalists who died in 2010, El Heraldo reports.
This year, Honduras was added to the list of most dangerous countries for journalists and the killing of HRN radio correspondent Henry Suazo the morning of Dec. 28 was one more on a growing list of crimes against journalists that remain unpunished.
Journalist José Luis Galdámez and his family deserve protection by Honduran authorities, according to an order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, reported the Associated Press.
Pakistan became the most deadly country for journalists in 2010, with eight colleagues killed during the year in connection with their work. In a year when 42 journalists were killed worldwide, Honduras, Mexico and Iraq also ranked high, the Committee to Protect Journalists says in a year-end analysis. See more world news coverage of CPJ’s report.
Peasants allegedly armed with assault rifles shot at a photographer for La Prensa newspaper while he was reporting on the military’s efforts to disarm farmers in the Atlantic coast region of Bajo Aguán, Proceso Digital reports.
Member countries of the UN Human Rights Council criticized Honduras and sought more information about human right violations since the coup that unseated President Manuel Zelaya, and about the killings of nine journalists in 2010, Inter Press Service reports. (See this earlier story in English).