From 2001 to the present, 69 media professionals in Honduras have died in violent circumstances, and people have been sentenced in only six of those cases. That is, 91 percent of the deaths remains in impunity, according to a report by the country’s National Commission of Human Rights (CONADEH for its acronym in Spanish).
Journalists who make justifications for hate or incite terrorism publicly or through media could receive punishments of between four and eight years in prison, according to a recent reform to the antiterrorism law approved by the National Congress of Honduras.
In Honduras, journalist Jairo López accused the president of the National Congress, Mauricio Oliva, of organizing a smear campaign against him through social networks, Tiempo Digital reported.
Igor Abisaí Padilla Chávez, a well-known Honduran journalist, was killed in San Pedro Sula on Jan. 17.
In Honduras, investigative journalist Ariel Armando D’Vicente Jarquín, 48, was sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of defamation for reporting on a former police chief, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Honduran journalist Félix Molina who was attacked twice in one day on May 2 has said he is considering leaving the country.
Depicting a funeral march, dozens of Honduran journalists marched with at least 60 symbolic coffins to the public prosecutor’s office in Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the deaths of journalists that have occurred in the country in recent years, reported newspaper El Heraldo.
Journalist David Romero Ellner, director of Honduran media outlets Radio Globo and Globo TV, was sentenced on March 14 to 10 years in prison for having committed six crimes of injuria and defamation against former public prosecutor Sonia Gálvez.
About 96 percent of the murders of journalists and other media workers in Honduras remain in impunity, according to figures received by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that recently published the report “Situation of Human Rights in Honduras.”
Journalist David Romero could face up to eight years and four months in prison after being found guilty of defamation (injurias and calumnias). Yet, throughout the course of judicial proceedings, the director of Radio Globo has repeated accusations of prejudice and retaliation against him because of his journalistic work.
Honduran newspaper Diario Tiempo announced today the termination of its print edition. The newspaper made the decision three weeks after the Honduran government froze the assets of its parent company, business conglomerate Grupo Continental, following accusations of money laundering by the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
Fearing for his life, a Honduran journalist who exposed an alleged corruption scandal implicating the country’s president and ruling political party has found safe harbor at the country’s national human rights office.