MIAMI, Florida (October 20, 2015)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed its solidarity with and concern for employees of the Honduras newspaper Tiempo and declared that it would remain alert to their problem following the liquidation ordered by the government of Banco Continental S.A., the bank of the Grupo Continental group, a conglomerate to which the paper belongs.
On October 9 the Honduras National Banking and Insurance Commission (CNBS) declared the forced liquidation of Banco Continental S.A. after the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included owners of that financial institution in a list “referring to people linked to money laundering.”
Following the closure of the bank the chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, said that without intent to make a judgment of any kind “we do wish to express our solidarity with the journalists, photographers, management staff, columnists and other Tiempo employees.” He added that the organization “will remain alert to this situation.”
With the liquidation of Banco Continental, the parent company of the Grupo Continental group, more than 50 companies that make it up have been affected.
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 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
