Honduras

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WHEREAS in recent months 9 journalists have been murdered in Honduras, the motives for which have not yet been determined by the police or the Attorney General’s Office within their respective areas of competence; WHEREAS the lack of trial and conviction of those responsible for these crimes gives rise to the perception of impunity, especially in the cases of the murder of journalists, which is contrary to freedom of expression and of the press, as well as the principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec, among others; WHEREAS the Executive Branch, through the offices of the cabinet members for the Interior and Population Ministries, decided to cancel the Honduran citizenship (by naturalization) of Federico Álvarez, a columnist for La Tribuna, and there are rational grounds to believe that such decision was motivated by the opinions he had voiced in his column in that newspaper. Alvarez has filed a plea before the Supreme Court asking it to shield him from the Executive Branch decision; WHEREAS the television network Teleunsa has complained of being the victim of constant abuses by the government concerning the use of the broadcast frequencies that it has assigned the network to operate on channels 8 and 10, including the confiscation of the former to turn it over to the government; WHEREAS principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states that: “Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press;” THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES: to demand that President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubí bring to a culmination the investigations and other actions designed to determine the motives for crimes against journalists and for compliance with the commitment made to the United Nations Special Commission for Human Rights to such end; to urge the Supreme Court to speedily resolve the plea made by Federico Álvarez regarding revocation of his Honduran citizenship, thus preventing the revocation from producing adverse effects for the climate of freedom of expression in Honduras; to ask the government of Honduras to immediately halt any act of intimidation, interference or any other that places obstacles in the way of the free flow of information or the development of newsgathering activity by the Teleunsa television network, its shareholders, executives or employees; to insist with the Supreme Court that it promptly issue a ruling on the legal actions taken by the Teleunsa television network regarding the confiscation of the frequency granted to Channel 8 and its assignment to the government of Honduras.

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