HONDURAS

Government interference in the media, which appeared imminent in the middle of last year, has retreated for now. The administration has not participated in disputes with the media. Lawsuits against journalists for news they have published are a daily event, as are threats to entities and public and private individuals. The general lack of safety also affects journalists with the added ingredient that they can be attacked because of their work with the general climate of insecurity being blamed. Two unprecedented events took place during this period. In December, a lawyer who advised journalists investigating a security company was murdered, and in January the Law of Transparency and Freedom of Information was enacted. This series of notable events affected press freedom: On October 11, José Peraza, news director of Radio Progreso in the city of El Progreso, Yoro, was attacked by municipal officials who were angry because the reporter had asked Jorge Alemán, the administrator of the town, how drunk he was when he made statements about its budget. On December 4, unknown individuals on a motorcycle, killed lawyer Dionisio García who was on his way to the Supreme Court. García advised the newspaper Revistazo.com of the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) about an investigative-reporting project about the operations of private security firms Delta Security and Setech. The reporting was being done by Dina Meza, projects coordinator for ASJ, Robert Marín García, Claudia Mendoza and Rosa Morazán, who had been followed and threatened since last September. In October, stockholders of Setech had sued them for libel, but the lawsuit failed. In December, a court ruled that journalist Serapio Umanzor Díaz was guilty of libeling former legislator Francisco Herrera Donnineli. Umanzor agreed to an out-of-court settlement to avoid being sentenced. The journalist had done some work concerning the former legislator’s family. In January, two journalists of the daily La Tribuna of Tegucigalpa received intimidating telephone calls and death threats while investigating apparent irregularities in the provision of medicine to the Instituto Hondureño de Seguridad Social, IHSS. The Law of Transparency and Freedom of Information was published in the official La Gaceta, on January 22, 2007. It was approved on November 27, 2006. The law represents an important step forward for obtaining information, but it does not fulfill the aspirations of the civic groups that fought for its approval. The law violates international agreements about freedom of information and the fight against corruption. It also puts obstacles on the declassification of information classified as secret. Finally, it would establish a Freedom of Information Institute. On February 13, an attempt was made to intimidate Launier Roberto Álvarez, who covers the courts. It was caused by the presentation of news in the television news show “Abriendo Brecha,” broadcast on Canal 7 of Corporación Televicentro, about lawyer Rodrigo Mazariegos, whom the Supreme Court sentenced to prison for falsifying public documents. In February, threats, insults and warnings of death were directed at journalists and even the publisher of the daily El Herado of Tegucigalpa, Jorge Canahuati. There were messages and calls to the newspaper because of an investigation showing that private groups deployed to Iraq were trained in Armed Forces units. Among the court cases affecting journalists is a lawsuit against Arnulfo Aguilar, who worked at the daily La Prensa on an article about then judge Thelma del Zerón. In addition, journalists Miguel Caballero Leiva of the daily La Tribuna, Julio Ernesto Alvarado, director of the program “Mi Nación” on Canal 13, Hondured, and Francisco Romero, host of “Hablemos de Noche,” on Canal 45, RCN, are being sued in a public trial for alleged defamation.