Abduction of journalist in Honduras raises IAPA’s concern

Calls on the government to take urgent action to counteract anti-press violence Miami (June 25, 2013).—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) urged the  Honduran authorities to investigate the kidnapping of journalist Aníbal Barrow, take effective action to ensure his protection, and to put an end to the violence being unleashed against the press. Since yesterday afternoon there has been no indication of the whereabouts of Barrow, 58, from the Globo TV television channel in San Pedro Sula, whose pickup truck was intercepted by at least three assailants. The driver, Barrow’s daughter-in-law, and a child grandson were left in various parts of the city, but Barrow’s whereabouts are unknown. The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, offered his sympathy to Barrow’s family and colleagues, and publicly called on the authorities “to urgently implement investigative and protective measures and mechanisms to ensure the safety of journalists and press freedoms.” According to local media Barrow’s family said it had not been contacted by the abductors; while the authorities confirmed that last night they had found Barrow’s abandoned pickup truck, in which they discovered traces of blood and a bullet hole in the passenger-side window. Barrow is the host of the weekly morning program “Aníbal Barrow y nada más” (Aníbal Barrow and Nothing More), broadcast by Globo TV. He is also an agricultural engineer and an economics lecturer at the Autonomous National University of Honduras in San Pedro Sula. Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, recalled that an IAPA delegation visited Honduras May 27-29. On that occasion the organization told President Porfirio Lobo and members of his cabinet of its concern at the lack of progress on the government’s commitment “to create a special unit for the investigation of crimes against journalists,” as had been agreed during an IAPA conference held in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa in August, 2012. The IAPA also questioned the impunity surrounding the majority of cases of violence against journalists in Honduras. According to IAPA figures, since 2009 a total of 21 members of the press have been murdered in the Central American country, regarded as one of the highest risk nations in the world to work as a journalist. The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.