The parents of Honduran journalist Nahum Palacio killed in March this year in Tocoa. Photo: Robert Shaw/IMS

Almost nine months after President Porfirio Lobo took office, Honduras has made little substantial progress toward investigating on-going killings, attacks and threats against journalists, said members of an international press freedom investigative mission to the country  

Investigations are littered with mistakes and inconsistencies coupled with on-going threats and attacks against journalists have fostered a climate of fear in this Central American country, according to the mission members.

In response to these continued violations of press freedom and freedom of expression in Honduras, three international media support and freedom of expression organisations – International Media Support (IMS), Article 19, and the legal programme of the World Association of Community Radios (AMARC) - carried out a joint investigative mission from 24 August to 2 September 2010 into the killings of journalists and attacks against the media visiting the cities of Tegucigalpa, Tocoa, Zacate Grande and the Garifuna community of Triunfo de la Cruz.

-Honduras has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for local journalists and community radios with at least nine reporters killed in nine months, said mission members.

The mission focused primarily on the two specific cases involving the March 14^th killing of Channel 5 reporter, Nahúm Palacios, who was killed in Tocoa as well as the January 6^th incendiary attack on community radio station Faluma Bimetu (Coco Dulce). Meanwhile, threats to Radio Progreso, occupied by the military during the coup, have continued and in a strange turn of events a judge acquitted the military stating that the decree that ordered the closure of media would have, in any case, taken Radio Progreso off the air.

Government inaction

All these cases had been granted “precautionary measures” by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), ordering the Honduran state to protect them. The Police declared that all cases were properly investigated and that none of them is related to the practice of the profession. Yet the Commission's findings show otherwise.

- The Government accepts little to no responsibility for investigating the cases, the local police have failed to protect the journalists and the judicial police ignore key protocols in the early stages of the investigations, the Commission found.

- In the end, it's the same inaction of the authorities that has allowed these and other attacks to be perpetrated.

Jeper Højberg, Executive Director of International Media Support added:

- The government has a responsibility to ensure that media can work safely. IMS also calls on media organisations in Honduras and internationally to join their efforts in support of Honduran journalists to enable them to work safely and professionally.

The Commission also investigated the case of community radio, the Voice of Zacate Grande, on the southwest coast of Honduras, which aired for the first time in April. Agroindustrial tycoon Miguel Facussé Barjum accused the station’s representatives of occupying “his“ land and “tax fraud.”. On June 3, 2010, a contingent of soldiers and police officers closed down the station, which now faces a legal battle to get back on the air. On August 22^nd, there was a clash between members of the community allegedly sent by Facussé, in which three people were injured. Police present at the scene did nothing to prevent the attacks.

After its May 2010 mission to Honduras, the IACHR concluded that these killings and threats had not been adequately investigated. It also called on the Honduran state to have “investigations conducted by independent, specialised bodies with a view to ascertaining the facts surrounding these deaths, which includes determining whether in fact the crimes were related to the practice of the profession, so that the persons responsible for the crimes can be tried and convicted.”

While President Lobo has expressed regret over the killings of journalists, his words have not translated into actions. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of four individuals accused of being the perpetrators and instigators of radio journalist David Meza Montesinos’ murder on 11 March in the Atlantic coast town of Ceiba, but there have been no developments in the murder of his colleague, Nahum Palacios Arteaga, who was gunned down three days later following threats believed to have come from the army.

- Authorities do not show any progress in the investigations into the other killings or threats and there have been no other detentions or prosecutions, said the mission.

On 1 September, the Honduran Congress carried out a press conference with local media to release a report into the killings of journalists and the progress made by the police and judicial authorities in their investigations into these assassinations.  However, the report, while the first of its kind in Honduras, does little to dispel fears of political collusion in a series of botched investigations.

- Beyond issuing reports that confirm the ineffectiveness of the police in investigating crimes against journalists, the Honduran Congress would do better to focus on redirecting the impending debates around the national budget and the need to provide substantive financial backing to the key members of the inter-institutional human rights committee dealing with investigations into the killings of journalists and human rights defenders, said the mission.

- With the national budget debate opening on 15 September, Congress must decide to back these investigations with the proper resources otherwise the key security and judicial forces trying to investigate these crimes will continue to be left impotent.

The Congress should also prioritise the need to reform the Telecommunications Act and recognize community media on equal terms with the traditional outlets, and thereby guaranteeing pluralism and diversity in the media.

Mission members met with a broad variety of independent journalists, families of the journalists, human rights lawyers and activists, as well as with the EU delegation in El Pueblo Garifuna, Zacate Grande, Tocoa and Tegucigalpa.

In October, the mission will present its final investigative report to the IACHR at its upcoming hearing in Washington D.C. The report forms part of an on-going investigation into whether or not the Honduran state is adequately investigating the attacks against media and killings of journalists in the country.

It will then be up to the IACHR to decide if the Honduran state is adequately investigating the attacks against community radios, local media, and the killings of journalists in the country.

For more information please contact:

In Mexico City, Aleida Calleja, Director of Legislation and Law Program of Communication, AMARC-LA, Mobile: +55 22 71 27 07

In Mexico City, Ricardo Gonzalez, Program Officer, Freedom of Expression, Article 19, Phone: +52 55 1054 6500 ext. 102

In USA, Robert Shaw, IMS, Mobile: +1347 827 5458