Journalist killed in Honduras, the 11th in two years

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Journalist killed in Honduras, the 11th in two years
May 11, 2011, 20:02 GMT

Tegucigalpa - Journalist Hector Medina Planco was killed in Honduras to become the 11th media person killed in the Central American country since 2009, police said.

Medina Polanco was shot by three unknown attackers late Tuesday in the central Honduran town of Morazan. He died Wednesday at Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, 250 kilometres from capital Tegucigalpa.

He was the news editor of the local cable television channel, and his brother said he had previously suffered two other attacks and filed the respective complaints with the police. He had reported on acts of corruption in Morazan.

Police did not give details as to the likely motives behind Medina Polanco's death.

Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1638543.php/Journalist-killed-in-Honduras-the-11th-in-two-years

[EFerrari]

1. That bloodless coup sure isn't going very well.

:grr:

[rabs]

3. Yeh, and hil said last month that she was committed ...

... to getting Lobo's Honduras re-admitted into the OAS, despite all those journalists who keep getting in the path of bullets.

[Judi Lynn]

4. My God. I knew I'd seen that face before. Just couldn't place it.

http://www.oldcrossleyanscc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/photos/lookalikes/ferengi.jpg

[Judi Lynn]

2. Provincial TV new host gunned down in Honduras

Provincial TV new host gunned down in Honduras

New York, May 11, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing of provincial television journalist Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco in Honduras and calls on local authorities to thoroughly investigate the murder.

According to news reports, Medina Polanco was shot around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday outside his home in Morazán in the northern department of Yoro. He died today from related complications at a municipal hospital in San Pedro Sula. The journalist, who produced and hosted the TV9 news program for the local cable company Omega Visión, was on his motorcycle returning home from work when he was shot in the arm and the back by two unidentified assailants also on motorcycle who had been following him, according to CPJ interviews and press reports.

According to Tegucigalpa-based El Heraldo, Medina Polanco had reported on corruption in the local mayor's office and on regional land disputes. The journalist's brother, Carlos Alberto Medino Polanco, told CPJ that Medina Polanco had been threatened several times over the past six months. El Heraldo reported that the journalist had reported threats to the local authorities. He also worked for governmental education project, his brother said.

~snip~
CPJ has recorded a string of recent attacks on journalists throughout the country. In April, director of San Pedro Sula-based Radio Uno Arnulfo Aguilar was ambushed by a group of armed men outside his home. In March, at least seven journalists covering a weeks-long teachers' protest faced harassment, attack, and detention, CPJ found. Earlier that month, Radio Voz de Zacate Grande director Fanklin Mendez was shot in the leg over the station's critical coverage of land disputes in the area.

More:
http://www.cpj.org/2011/05/provincial-tv-new-host-gunned-down-in-honduras.php

[Judi Lynn]

5. Honduran journalist critical of police, wealthy ranchers, killed outside his home

Honduran journalist critical of police, wealthy ranchers, killed outside his home
FREDDY CUEVAS
The Associated Press
8:22 p.m. EDT, May 11, 2011

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a journalist outside his home in a city in northern Honduras, officials said Wednesday.

Francisco Medina, a 35-year-old television reporter, was ambushed Tuesday night in the city of Morazan, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Honduras' capital, said Santos Galvez, a member of Honduras' College of Journalists press group.

Galvez called Medina's slaying work-related and said he had received death threats.

In his reporting, Medina was critical of the Honduran national police and of private security firms contracted by ranchers in the area, where drug traffickers operate.

More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-honduras-journalist-killed,0,4139617.story

[Octafish]

6. Gee. Wealthy and powerful people and drug traffickers and an inquiring journalist shot dead.

Never could happen here, right.

When Webb's report was new, Poppy Bush and his apologists also slimed Sen. John Kerry and his investigators as "conspiracy theorists" for investigating the Contra-Cocaine Connection.

[Judi Lynn]

8. So good to see that thread. Hope those who missed it will check it out. So worth reading,

and remembering.

People do need to know what has been happening, all this time the corporate media were pointing in entirely different directions, of course.

Overwhelming material, essential reading. Thanks for the link.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Local TV journalist gunned down in north, motive almost certainly linked to work

Local TV journalist gunned down in north, motive almost certainly linked to work
Published on Thursday 12 May 2011.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the murder of Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco, 35, the host of a news programme on provincial TV station Omega Visión, who died in a hospital in the northern city of San Pedro Sula yesterday from the gunshot injuries he had received the day before.

Medina was shot twice in the chest and once in the arm by two men on a motorcycle who followed him to his home in Morazán, a town outside the nearby city of El Progreso. He was almost certainly killed in connection with his work as a journalist. In his TV programme, he often criticized irregularities in the Morazán municipal government and referred to land disputes involving the region’s cattle farmers.

The serious reprisals to which Honduran journalists are exposed when they dare to cover disputes over the use of farm land have been highlighted of late by the persecution of community radio stations Radio Faluma Bimetu (Radio Coco Dulce) and La Voz de Zacate Grande.

Medina had received threats as a result of the views he had expressed on agricultural issues. On 3 May (World Press Freedom Day), Reporters Without Borders added the powerful Honduran businessman landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum to its list of “Predators of Press Freedom.”

More:
http://en.rsf.org/honduras-local-tv-journalist-gunned-down-in-12-05-2011,40271.html

[Judi Lynn]

9. Restoring the rule of law in Honduras

Restoring the rule of law in Honduras
Honduras wants readmission to the Organisation of American States – but how, with a supreme court that backed the coup?
Viviana Krsticevic guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 May 2011 22.00 BST

The image of then President Manuel Zelaya in his pyjamas, being forced out of the presidential palace by the military and on to a plane bound for Costa Rica, is easy to remember. Perhaps less memorable is that the coup d'état of June 2009 was carried out with the active participation of the entire supreme court of justice as well as the attorney general of Honduras.

Zelaya's arrest was ordered by Honduras' supreme court and carried out by the armed forces. The court took no action to ensure the protection of Zelaya's rights, or those of thousands of Hondurans who were arbitrarily detained following the coup. Worse still, Honduras' highest court urged its judges to take part in a street demonstration in support of what was dubbed a "constitutional succession". Later, the court went as far as to fire a group of judges that participated in pro-democracy marches.

The dismissal of these judges was roundly and jointly condemned by the United Nations special rapporteurships on independence of judges and lawyers, promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and human rights defenders. Similar statements were made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organisation of American States (OAS) and by the United Nations in its universal periodic review (UPR). On 14 April, the Inter-American Commission notified the judges who had been arbitrarily dismissed by the pro-coup supreme court of Honduras that their case had been admitted. In the coming months, it may indeed be submitted to the Inter-American Court.

During and since the coup, Honduras' attorney general has displayed inefficiency and bias with regard to the investigation of crimes committed against Zelaya, his cabinet, journalists, teachers, union members, opposition members and activists of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. A blatant illustration of this is the impunity that prevails regarding the assassinations of journalists and LGBTI people since the coup d'état.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/12/honduras-usforeignpolicy