The practice of journalism continues to reflect a negative atmosphere that includes threats against members of the press and acts of intimidation of several news media, and the murder of three journalists and a media employee. The situation is worsened by the demonstrated inability of the government to put an end to the levels of violence besetting all of society and which is fed by the impunity reigning at all levels of the justice system, including the police, the Public Prosecutors Office and the judiciary, all irreparably leading to an increase in the levels of press self-censorship.
On the legislative front, a cautious watch is being kept on the proposal coming from the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) that seeks to regulate national networks which could, if adopted as initially drafted, represent a major restriction for television and radio media, more discretion for the government to abuse that mechanism in matters that are not of national emergency and excessive punishment for non-compliance.
During this period IAPA participation has been very active in Honduras, highlighting the conference organized by the Honduran News Media Association (AMC). As a result of this event, President Porfirio Lobo Sosas government committed to implementing a series of reforms and mechanisms enabling greater protection of journalists and media in the face of a crime wave besetting the country, as set out in the Declaration of Tegucigalpa.
The most relevant cases are the following:
News media businessman and journalist Ariel DVicente sought the protection of the National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH) after exposing scandalous acts of alleged corruption implicating senior officials of the current administration and receiving open death threats on several occasions.
José Encarnación Chinchilla, correspondent of Radio Cadena Voces in the town of El Progreso, suffered an attack at his home there in which his son José Alberto was shot and wounded. Chinchilla has sought refuge in the United States.
Radio Progeso, owned by the Catholic Churchs Honduras Company of Jesus, was the object of intimidation of its journalists by police officers that surrounded its building for more than two hours.
In July, Selvín Martínez, correspondent of the television network JBN, was the target of an armed attack. This was the second one in April he suffered another at his home in Omoa, Cortés province. He has asked for government protection.
Four murders were committed in this period.
On May 7, journalist and political activist Erick Alexander Martínez Ávila was murdered in Tegucigalpa. In this case some suspects have already been arrested, but the trial has not yet begun.
On May 15, the body of journalist Ángel Alfredo Villatoro, news director of Radio HRN, was found in Tegucigalpa. He had been shot to death several days after having been kidnapped as he was on his way to work at the radio station and one day after President Lobo declared that he had evidence he was alive.
On July 8, Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutiérrez, a reporter with Radio Stereo Naranja, was murdered in an incident in which two of his cousins also died in Villanueva, Cortés province. The motives and the perpetrators of the crime are continuing under investigation.
On August 11, José Noel Canales was shot to death. He was an employee of the online newspaper Hondudiario, in Comayagüela, Francisco Morazán province, as he was being attacked by several assailants while on his way to work.
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