Honduras called on to investigate murders of journalists

Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 4 (EFE)—The International Freedom of Expression Exchange network in Latin America and the Caribbean (IFEX-ALC) has asked Honduras that all the cases of the murder of journalists in that country be investigated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Rights. The request was made to the Universal Periodic Examination (EPU) of Honduras, which will take place today at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The EPU is an evaluation of the state of human rights to which all members of the United Nations are subjected. IFEX-ALC says in a document presented to the Council members that in 2010 there have been nine murders of journalists in Honduras. “It is the region’s country with most journalists killed during the year and judicial investigations have not given the hoped-for results,” the paper says. In the document it is regretted that there has been inaction by the Central American country’s administration, adding “the Honduran government insists on denying the situation and links the murders to common delinquency and organized crime.” The journalists belonging to the network deplored the fact that in Honduras “there are constant attacks on those who exercise freedom of expression and they cannot rely on effective policies to guarantee the exercise of their rights,” a situation that has also been denounced in the report on Honduras prepared for the EPU by the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In that report it is stated that “in May 2010 a group of special United Nations rapporteurs asked the Honduran government to take urgent action to confront the growing vulnerability of journalists working in the country, as in the six weeks prior to the call seven journalists have been murdered and others have received threats.” In addition, the Special Rapporteur for Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, stresses in the UN report the importance of “pursuing reform of the criminal law in order to bring it into line with international standards.”