When a TV journalist was shot to death recently in Tegucigalpa, the police were quick to say the motive had nothing to do with his reporting work. Some publications say he was the 37th a journalist murdered in Honduras since 2003, while others say he was the 45th reporter killed during that same period.
Carlos Mejía Orellana, an employee with Honduran radio station Radio Progreso, was stabbed and killed in the municipality of El Progreso on April 11, Reporters Without Borders informed.
Honduran journalist Julio Ernesto Alvarado, from television channel Globo TV, was sentenced to 16 months of prison for defaming Belinda Flores Mendoza, dean of the School of Economic Sciences at the Autonomous University of Honduras.
A criminal court in Honduras convicted three men accused of killing Honduran journalist Alfredo Villatoro in 2012, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) informed.
On Feb. 28, the Honduran government ordered the cancelation of the legal status of 5,429 non-governmental organizations, including freedom of expression organization Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre), which condemned the order in a public alert published on March 7, asking for support from national and international organizations.
International organizations are condemning the increased government harassment of two Honduran journalists, Julio Ernesto Alvarado and Dina Meza, in recent months.
More than a hundred Honduran journalists and media workers were threatened or attacked between 2010 and 2013, according to a Feb. 18 announcement by the Committee for Human Rights (CONADEH), reported El Heraldo.
In a new report published last week, PEN International, PEN Canada and the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law lamented Honduras’ transition to a life-threatening place where crimes against journalists often go unpunished.
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.