A Honduran court ordered the arrest of three more suspects in the kidnapping and killing of radio journalist Alfredo Villatoro, reported the newspaper El Heraldo. The suspects arrested are Marvin Alonso Gómez, Osmán Fernando Osorio Arguijo, and Edgar Francisco Osorio Arguijo, who are accused of conspiracy and illegal arms possession, according to La Tribuna. Their arrests make a total of eight suspects detained for the crime against the journalist, who was the news director for HRN, one of the most influential radio stations in Honduras, said the newspaper La Prensa.
Outraged by the killing of 22 journalists in Honduras since January 2010, communication workers from this country marched to protest the impunity of crimes against journalists and to demand protection of freedom of expression on Friday, May 25, Day of the Journalist in Honduras, reported the newspaper Proceso.
After the killing of his family and five of his colleagues, Mexican reporter and photographer Miguel Ángel López Solana urged journalistic organizations to protect journalists in the state of Veracruz on Tuesday, May 22, during the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, themed Security and Protection for Journalists and organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations.
A Honduran judge ordered arrest warrants for five suspects in the kidnapping and killing of journalist Alfredo Villatoro, reported the news agency AFP on Tuesday, May 22.
One day after reporter Marcos Ávila was kidnapped by three armed men in the Mexican state of Sonora, authorities found the journalist's body strangled and with signs of torture. A message that has been attributed to drug-traffickers was found next to the body, reported the newspaper El Universal on the afternoon of Friday, May 18.
As the investigation into the kidnapping and killing of Honduran journalist Alfredo Villatoro, continues, the local press is reporting on possible motives and suspects behind the crime.
Just hours after Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said that kidnapped journalist Alfredo Villatoro was still alive, the secretary of Public Security denied this information and announced that on the night of Tuesday, May 15, authorities discovered the dead body of the prominent radio journalist who worked for HRN, the most prominent Honduran radio station, reported BBC news.
Another journalist from the Brazilian state of Maranhão has reported threats after the killing of journalist Décio Sá, reported the website Gazeta da Ilha on Monday, May 14. Other reporters and publishers of the state said they received frequent threats. Sá's friends say that he received threats before he was shot to death in a bar in São Luiz.
On Monday, May 14, the Newseum held a special re-dedication ceremony for its Journalists Memorial, adding the names of the 70 journalists who died on the job in 2011 and two who died in previous years, reported MediaBistro.
A Mexican reporter was found dead in the trunk of his car in the city of Cuernavaca, about 52 miles from Mexico City, reported the news agency AFP.
On Thursday, May 10, an appeals court ruled on the killing of Peruvian journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández in 2004 and absolved former Mayor Luis Valdez Villacorta of Coronel Portillo and former City Manager Zolio Ramírez Garay who were accused of being the masterminds behind the crime, reported the Press and Society Institute.
According to Peruvian police, the mayor of Comandante Noel, Marco Rivero Huerta, is the mastermind behind the killing of journalist Pedro Flores Silva who was killed in September 2011 in Casma, reported the newspaper La República.