Under fire:Journalists in Honduras work amid a scene of intimidation and death threats

[Judi Lynn]

Under fire
Journalists in Honduras work amid a scene of intimidation and death threats
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 8, 2010, 9:07PM

In an alarming development over the past few months, a near neighbor of the U.S. has become one of the deadliest nations in the world for journalists.

As documented in a special report for the Committee to Protect Journalists authored by Mike O'Connor, unidentified killers shot seven Honduran broadcast journalists to death in a bloody spree beginning in March. Six occurred in a span of seven weeks.

The CPJ investigation found evidence indicating at least three, and possibly more, of the murders were motivated by the journalists' work. That would make Honduras the second most dangerous place to practice journalism in 2010, exceeded only by Pakistan.

After the military coup last year that ousted leftist president Manuel Zelaya, critics of the regime installed by the military were targeted by uniformed police and anonymous assailants. A U.S. State Department report referred to accounts of arbitrary killings by agents of the de facto regime following the June coup.

Elections last November put conservative Porfirio Lobo in power, but Honduran journalists told CPJ they fear the murders have been conducted with tacit approval of authorities. One of the victims, Channel 5 anchorman Nahúm Palacios, a coup opponent, was slain after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ordered the Honduran government to protect his life because of death threats.

As disturbing as the journalists' deaths has been the Honduran government's swift dismissal of the possibility that the victims were killed because of their line of work. Minister of Security Óscar Álvarez told reporters that they were probably street crimes. Adding to the suspicion of government complicity is the fact Álvarez made his statement without providing any supporting evidence and investigators have not apprehended any suspects in the murders.

More:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7145121.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. For readers' enlightenment, a letter from the Honduran government to the NY Times:

Killings in Honduras
Published: August 8, 2010

To the Editor:

“Honduras Faces Criticism Over Journalist Killings After a Coup” (news article, July 27) cites a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists accusing the government of Honduras of failing to investigate the murders of seven journalists this year.

According to the National Prosecutors Office, all the cases have been fully investigated, and in four of the cases, orders of arrest have been issued against those allegedly responsible. In one of the cases, there is a formal criminal trial under way against the accused. The investigations have not concluded in the rest of the cases and continue at a standard pace. Therefore, one should not talk about killing with “impunity” in any of these cases, as the report does.

The results of the investigations at this point place the deaths of the journalists within the context of the climate of insecurity created by organized crime and common crime in Central America, including Honduras. In none of the cases has it been established that the government pursues a policy of restrictions on freedom of expression or press persecution, or that the crimes have been politically motivated.

The government of Honduras has requested international assistance, from the United States, Colombia and Spain, to make the investigation procedures more effective and transparent, to provide technical assistance and to help design a public policy on human rights.

Ana Pineda
Minister of Human Rights
Government of Honduras
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Aug. 3, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/lweb09honduras.html?partner=rss&emc=rss