22 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Georgino Orellana, a producer and presenter for Television de Honduras, is the seventh journalist to be murdered in Honduras in the past six weeks. Orellana had just left the station’s studios in San Pedro Sula last night, when he was shot dead by an unidentified person. The motive is still unknown but police chief Hector Ivan Mejia insists that this murder “won’t go unpunished.” Honduras has been the world’s deadliest country for the media since the start of this year and, although the criminal violence across the country had always been high, the coup significantly implemented the plight of journalists.
14 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost
On 12 April, a court dropped all the charges against the former commissioners of the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), accused of the closure of two media during the political crisis of 2009. The Human Rights special prosecutor had accused them of the crime of abuse of authority, for ordering the closing of Channel 36 and Radio Globo, in the context of the political crisis created after the coup d’état against Manuel Zelaya.
14 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost
On 11 April, Luis Antonio Chévez, host of a musical programme on Radio W105, was shot to death in the country’s business capital San Pedro Sula. His cousin, 20, was also killed in the incident. The motive for the killings is unknown, but police have ruled out a robbery, given that a silver bracelet and a “considerable amount of cash” were found among the victims’ belongings. Chévez is the sixth media worker assassinated in Honduras in the last two months.
06 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost
On 28 March, José Alemán, a journalist with Tiempo newspaper fled the country after a series of attacks, including an incident when two unidentified gunmen broke into his home in the rural municipality of San Marcos de Ocotepeque, near the border with El Salvador. His departure tops off a month in which five Honduran journalists were killed in a 30-day period.
