report Reporters Without Borders
A seventh journalist is shot to death in a climate of threats increasingly alarming Georgino
Orellana is the seventh journalist killed in six weeks. The journalist, who ran a TV program in Honduras, leaving the premises of the channel when a stranger was coming out was killed by a bullet in the head, the night of April 20, 2010 in San Pedro Sula. This year, Honduras is classified as the most dangerous country in the world for professionals in the media. A wave of violence that has forced the three journalists into exile.
The motive for the murder of Georgino Orellana is still unknown and his murderer was on the run. The journalist, who was also a university professor, spent ten years as a reporter for the corporation Televicentro. We express our condolences to his family and colleagues.
Héctor Iván Mejía, police chief of San Pedro Sula, said the killing "will not go unpunished." Despite recent government promises, no justice has been done in any of the cases that occurred after the coup of June 28, 2009, whether or not directly linked to this event. Already the victim of great uncertainty, the Honduran press has lived since then an even more dramatic.
Evidence of this situation are the threats against Radio Progreso, occupied by the army hours after coup to prevent dissemination of information on it ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgfbWwLHjI0 ). Contacted by Reporters Without Borders, Radio Progreso managers requested that the names of journalists and death threats remain anonymous for security reasons.
Moreover, on 20 April, the community radio station Voice of Zacate Grande was the victim of intimidation by local police and private guards Miguel Facussé Barjum businessman, who holds a land dispute with the Association for Development Grande Grass Peninsula, whose cause defends the radio station.
addition, the April 9 2010 the facilities of Channel 40, Tocoa (Atlantic region), were shot, according to information of the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre). The attack is attributed to two individuals, the television journalist and Emilio Oviedo Reyes complains have been targeted after the coup. In this city was killed Nahum Palacios ( http://es.rsf.org/honduras-asesinan-a-tiros-a-un-tercer-16-03-2010, 36716.html ). It is likely that the exercise of their profession is the cause of crime precisely Oviedo Emilio Reyes was reported to the police.
Finally, on April 12 passed a criminal court of Tegucigalpa released four officers from the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), including former president Miguel Angel Rhodes, accused by prosecutors of "abuse of authority." The four officials last September ordered the closure and confiscation of material and Cholusat Radio Globo TV (Channel 36), the two leading opposition media in the coup, at the time of installation of state of emergency after clandestine return to the country Manuel Zelaya ( http://es.rsf.org/honduras-cierre-de-dos-medios-y-represion-29-09-2009, 34613.html ). Martha Murillo The judge considered that freedom of expression "no had been locked in a state of emergency situation. " However, Article 73 of the Honduran Constitution prohibits any seizure of material or work stoppage of a communication medium, on behalf of the principle of freedom of expression. Moreover, this constitutional guarantee can not be suspended during a state of siege, recalls C-Libre.
