The decision of the Honduran Congress to allocate the frequency of television channel Canal 8 to the government has prompted criticisms, and the owner of Teleunsa -- which currently operates the signal -- has accused President Porfirio Lobo of plotting to take over the station, reported La Prensa and AFP.
According to C-Libre/IFEX, the harassment against Radio Uno in the city of San Pedro Sula has escalated during the past three months and this week its broadcast signal was interrupted when unknown persons cut the electricity to the station's transmitters.
The Mexican press has become a target for drug-related violence, prompting a company to promote its bullet-proof vests as a way of protecting members of the media, according to Clarín and news agencies.
Israel Zelaya Díaz, a renowned radio journalist from San Pedro Sula, was found dead outside the city with three bullet wounds, reported Radio-Info and La Tribuna. He was the 10th journalist killed in Honduras this year, explained Radio Nederland.
A police operation ended in the capture of Marco Álvarez Barahona, the lead suspect in the killing of radio reporter David Meza Montesinos, who was shot to death last March, La Tribuna reports. According to El Tiempo, two other suspects remain at large.
A new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says the government is “fostering a climate of lawlessness” that has led to the deaths of nine media workers this year, including seven in just two months.
Over the first six months of this year, the region has passed Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, as the area with the most journalists killed, the International Press Institute announced in its Six-Month Death Watch report.
Judge Jesús Fernández arrived Saturday, July 10, in Honduras for a special mission to help the government of Porfirio Lobo in its investigation into the deaths of at least seven journalists this year, reported El Heraldo.
One year after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from office, Honduras has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, according to the International Press Institute. The article includes a timeline of the murders of Honduran journalists in 2010.
Luís Arturo Mondragón, news director for a local cable news channel, died after leaving work when two people shot him from the window of their vehicle in El Paraíso, east of the capital, El Heraldo reports.
Karol Cabrera, a controversial TV and radio host who defended the coup that forced out President Manuel Zelaya last June, won asylum for herself and her two children in Canada, El Tiempo and La Prensa report. (See this Miami Herald article in English.)
It appears that the killing of reporter David Meza Montesinos will not go unpunished. After weeks of investigations, the attorney general has issued an arrest order against four people accused of killing the TV and radio reporter last March, Radio América and El Heraldo report.