A controversial state secrecy law quietly passed by Honduran lawmakers last week was suspended Friday Jan. 17 after strong backlash from civil society groups including Reporters Without Borders, who said the law unduly restricted freedom of information.
The Law on Secret Information, discreetly adopted by the Honduran parliament on Jan. 13, endangers Hondurans’ access to public information and the transparency of their new government, according to various human rights organizations like Reporters Without Borders.
A provincial Honduran journalist was gunned down and killed on Dec. 7, Reporters Without Borders informed. Juan Carlos Argeñal, 49, is the third journalist this year to be murdered in the country.
The body of Honduran cameraman Manuel de Jesús Varela Murillo, 32, was found with three bullet wounds in the face on Oct. 23 near a popular neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, C-Libre reported. It appeared Varela Murillo had been killed a week before being found.
Superficial crime reporting that relies on bloody photos and spread, but lacks any explanation behind such photos, has become a common occurrence among Honduras' media outlets. The Fundación MEPI, a regional investigative journalism project based in Mexico City, says that its content analysis and interviews with reporters and editors have drawn out multiple reasons behind this growing trend: a lack of government-media implemented safety mechanisms to protect journalists, little access to timely official reports by the authorities, and fear of retaliation, if stories display too much context or insight.
C-Libre, a Honduras-based organization promoting freedom of expression, is questioning the suicide of journalist Aldo Calderón, who was investigating the killing of his colleague Anibal Barrow.
The dismembered body of Honduran television journalist Aníbal Barrow was identified on July 10, 2013 after a 16-day search,
The army and police in Honduras, with assistance from U.S. agents, continue the search for journalist Aníbal Barrow, kidnapped on June 24 in the city of San Pedro Sula, according to the daily El Heraldo.
The restriction of information by government officials, journalists' safety and the telecommunications bill in Honduras are the main concerns worrying a committee from the Inter American Press Society, IAPA, visiting the country since May 27.
Concerned over the state of freedom of expression and the safety of journalists in Central America, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) is on tour through the region to meet and discuss these issues with media outlets.
With six countries listed without a free press, including three countries with some of the highest levels of impunity in the world for press crimes, Latin American freedom of expression is at its lowest levels since 1989.
The president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, has presented the Congress with a proposal that toughens content regulations on the media, including regulation on schedules and punishments for broadcasting violent or obscene content, content that celebrates or defends crime, or content that goes against morals and good behavior, said La Prensa. Lobo’s proposed telecom law is popularly known as the “ley mordaza” – the gag law – due to its restrictions on press freedom.