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.
The Honduran National Commissioner on Human Rights, Ramón Custodio, suggested that a proposed telecommunications bill would enable censorship, violate the right to private property and make the state a content producer, according to the newspaper La Tribuna
A Honduran journalist has decided to suspend two radio and TV programs due to threats, according to Reporters Without Borders.
A bill proposed in Honduras would create an organization to regulate media content, according to La Prensa.
Following the release of a video showing the shooting deaths of two young people in Honduras and the publication of several violent events in the country, the president and security minister of Honduras are blaming the media for harming the country's image and causing social damage.
A Honduran TV journalist has said he fears for his life and accused congressman and presidential candidate Juan Orlando Hernández of supporting a “hate campaign” against him, according to the Committee for Free Expression (or C-Libre in Spanish).
A government decree that would temporarily suspend tax credits enjoyed by the media in Honduras sparked controversy in the country, according to a report from the website Centinela Económico.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo criticized media organizations for reporting on the roaring violence in the country, which includes the highest murder rate in the world at 92 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
Two journalists in Honduras have continued to receive death threats in 2013, according to the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre in Spanish).
The Committee for Free Expression, or C-Libre, claimed that a radio station in Honduras censored without explanation a radio spot it paid for advocating the democratization of the broadcast spectrum.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo accused two newspapers of conspiring against him after they published a statement from the Central American country's Supreme Court demanding he respect the judicial branch's independence, according to a report from the newspaper La Prensa.
Reporters Without Borders asked Honduran authorities to immediately provide protection for the independent reporter Karla Zelaya, who has received death threats and was recently kidnapped and tortured during an interrogation about her work.